An ancient Chinese proverb holds that "A meal without rice is like a beautiful woman with only one eye."
When it comes to desserts, one could paraphrase that proverb by saying, "A custard without rice is ..."
Rice custard, or pudding, if you prefer, maintains its status as a diner classic.
"It's pretty popular with people who desire home-cooked foods," comments Matthew Costa, head chef at the Mill Pond Diner in Wareham.
"If not the favorite, it's the second-most favorite dessert at the diner over the past 20 years," says Phil Paleologos, owner of the Shawmut Diner in New Bedford and host of "American Breakfast" on Cable Radio Network and Langer Broadcast Network.
But rice pudding isn't strictly an American comfort food. In their cookbook, "Seductions of Rice," Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid state that "Wherever there is rice, there seems to be a simple rice pudding, most often cooked in milk."
Their book, published in 1998 by Artisan, includes pudding recipes from Senegal, Spain, Turkey, India, Persia and Mexico, as well as their Memories of Childhood Rice Pudding.
The introduction for the latter will reverberate with many readers "I can't find my mother's rice pudding recipe. It was wonderful, a baked rice pudding with a golden brown skin that we'd all argue over. The best bits of skin were those that had stuck onto the sides of the aging oval Pyrex dish she baked the pudding in. ... This recipe is our closest approximation of that long ago pleasure, a treat at any time, but especially for dessert on a cold winter night after a long, tiring day at school."
While some rice custards are baked, like this childhood favorite, others are cooked on the stovetop, such as the Portuguese sweet rice.
Mr. Costa, who has been head chef at the Wareham diner for about 18 months and was trained by owner William Goyette, bakes the pudding in a water bath. The mixture of eggs, milk, rice, vanilla and "a good amount of cinnamon" results in a dessert with "a layer of rice on the bottom and custard on top." It's generally served cold, but will be warmed on request, Chef Costa says. He finds that customers favor the raisin version over plain.
The rice pudding is part of a repertoire that includes bread pudding, egg custard, Grapenut pudding as well as a less familiar pudding.
"We make what's called a 'cottage custard,' with carrots, molasses, raisins, cornmeal and nuts," Chef Costa says.
The Shawmut's Mr. Paleologos says, "We make our rice pudding the old Greek way, in a double boiler. ... The recipe was passed down from (his wife) Celeste's mom." Other times, his mother's recipe is followed, which calls for the inclusion of orange or lemon peel, with occasionally a few raisins.
He credits the popularity of the pudding to the quality ingredients that go into it. "Our milk comes from Arruda's Dairy in North Tiverton, and that makes a difference," Mr. Paleologos says. "The milk is so creamy-rich." The eggs come from a small farm in Putnam, Conn., and the diner uses Carolina-brand rice, he adds.
Bread pudding, sometimes with fresh strawberries or blueberries, and tapioca are other top sellers in the dessert rotation at the North End diner, Mr. Paleologos reports.
Making these sweets is becoming a forgotten art with home cooks, he feels. "The art of taking 20 minutes to make something from scratch ... it's like wearing saddle shoes," he quips.
According to the USA Rice Federation, there are no rules on which type of rice to use in any particular recipe. It is simply a matter of personal preference. The federation's Web site states, "You may find that ...medium- and short-grain rice would be a good choice for making dishes that have a creamier characteristic -- such as risotto and desserts -- or dishes where stickier rice is preferred -- like sushi, molds or croquettes."
In their 1991 cookbook, "Rice," Bonnie Tandy Leblang and Joanne Lamb Hayes maintain that "Using short or medium-grain rice is the secret to a perfectly creamy rice pudding. It also ensures that the rice in the pudding will not get crunchy (retrograde) when refrigerated."
Retrogradation, they explain, is the process in which cooked rice becomes hard again under refrigeration. It happens to rice that is high in the starch called amylose, such as U.S. long-grain rice.
Today's collection of recipes includes baked and stovetop puddings as well as a chocolate variation, another that's sauced with cherries, and an unusual caramel and apple-laced tart.
Why not take the time to make a comforting dessert that your family and friends will build their memories around?
