Cherry Rice Pudding

Rice Pudding is a traditional favorite, served to the sick when rice was first imported to Europe. Now, it’s considered a comfort food—simple and nourishing as a breakfast, brunch, or dessert dish.

This version has dried cherries added, although raisins or cranberries can certainly be used instead.

The instructions here are for a pressure cooker, but of course you can bake it in a conventional oven in a pan of water as you would for custard. Best results in the pressure cooker require the use of a metal cake pan, which will cook the pudding more quickly and evenly than glass.

1 ½ cups cooked brown basmati rice

½ cup dried cherries

3 eggs, beaten

½ cup sugar

1 cup milk, buttermilk, or kefir

1 tbls vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

1 pinch salt

Mix rice and cherries together and place in an 8” cake pan lined with parchment; do not settle or pack.

Whisk eggs with sugar and stir in remaining ingredients. Pour over rice.

Seal top of pan with foil. Place on trivet in pressure cooker with 2 cups water in bottom.

Steam at 8 psi for 35 minutes, then turn heat off and allow to cool slowly. When almost cooled, remove pan carefully and check that the custard is set. Remove pudding from pan along with parchment. May be inverted into a pie plate or serving dish and served with a little maple syrup drizzled over.