Sheldon wrote:

> I don't think very good rice pudding can be made with already cooked
> rice. Left over Chinese take out rice is really only good for fly
> lice, or in tomato soup... even before it was cooked it already
> absorbed all the pungent cooking aromas of a Chinese kitchen, none of
> which the delicate aroma of vanilla bean will cover. I almost always
> end up tossing that left over rice out into the yard for the birds...
> you wasted like $5 worth of ingredients, not to mention all your time
> and labor, attempting to salvage like 3¢ worth of stale rice.

I have used leftover rice, usually Basmati, for pudding many
times. It is passable, better than most rice puddings I have been
served, but not as good as a batch made from scratch and using
arborio rice.

My wife doesn't eat rice. I find that it cooks better in batches
big enough for at least four people. I usually make a batch and
then reheat it by putting it in a serving size Pyrex bowl
inverted on a plate an nuke it.




>
> The problem with pudding is it really doesn't pay to go through all the
> trouble to make it from scatch for only a serving or three, and it
> doesn't store well for more than a day or two so making a tubful is not
> a good option unless you have hearty eaters about. The last time I
> made tapioca pudding from scratch I prepared six quarts, not realizing
> how filling that stuff is, couldn't eat much more than like a cupful at
> a sitting... I was lucky my next door neighbor had a passle of grand
> kids visiting that day and they all love tapioca pudding, so none got
> wasted.
>
> You need to keep some snack puddings around...
> JELL-O makes an instant rice pudding mix:
> http://www.kraftfoods.com/jello/main...family_pudding
>
> Sheldon