Day: September 21, 2013

Kheer or Indian Rice Pudding

We’ll the nieces were having a sleepover today and in an effort to introduce some indian tastes to their diet, I thought I’d make some kheer. This is a simple dish with lots of happy childhood memories associated with it, as mum or dad would make it for celebrations. I tend to cheat a little as with the Kuala Lumpur heat, spending an hour stirring a pot is not my idea of fun. My youngest niece is lactose intolerant so this version uses lactose free milk and almond milk instead of full cream. Sadly, it did not go down so well with the kids but dad is happy to have more left over for his breakfast and mum sneaked a few portions despite her insistence on wanting a light meal day.

20130922-010454.jpg

Ingredients

2 cups cooked basmati rice
5 green cardamom pods
3 cups almond milk
2 cups lactose free milk ( you could just use 5 cups of normal milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins (you could add blanched almonds, pistachios and cashews too)

Method

Bring the milk and cardamom to boil and lower heat to medium. Stir in the sugar and let it reduce for 15 mins. Add in cooked rice and leave to simmer for a further 20 mins. Stir occasionally (I stirred in between editing a paper for a conference next week so around 3 times.) Add raisins (and nuts if using) and simmer for 10 mins. It should now be ready to serve. I like it warm and straight out of the pot but everyone else likes it cold.

Kiss kiss,

Bubbles

Snack Attack!

After you’ve managed to fight temptation and despair during the cookie-sharing at work, you deserve to reward yourself. Here’s a quick GF product snack do and don’t for this week:

DO: Choculence by Leda Food

Choculence

This chocolate wafer snack is as healthy as these snacks come (non-GMO, few chemical ingredients), eco-friendly (vegan) and it’s probably the tastiest chocolate snack I’ve had. Even non-GF husband loves (and often finishes) it–it’s very precious in our house when it’s available! Tastes almost exactly like Tam Tam’s original recipe, without the cloying sweetness. It’s a hard find in grocery stores and runs out often. I’ve seen it in Cold Storage (in KL areas only), Village Grocer (in Bangsar), and Mercato (Pavilion). Also available in a mint variation. Cost is reasonable at approximately RM13.00 for a row of delicious cookies.

DON’T: Frollini by Schär 

photo

I was super excited to see this new brand stocked in the GF section at Village Grocer in Bangsar. I generally like German brands and products (e.g. the GF versions of Frankonia’s Hanuta and Ritter Sport’s alpine milk chocolate are so good!). However, this one proved a disappointment. These cookies fulfill the GF stereotype of tasting like cardboard. Texture-wise they are firm and consistent. And a plus — they are not sweet and contain only 32 calories per cookie. But given that: a) we buy cookies as treats, and b) the cost is super hight at RM17.00++ per bag, I would give these a skip.

As an added bonus, enjoy this pretty funny yet sad and accurate representation of The Celiac’s Struggles.

Peace,

Daisy