This dish is a classic for children's breakfasts, along with semolina porridge and an order of annoying oatmeal. Sweet rice is good even on its own with a piece of butter and a crisp crust of a freshly baked bun, and if you add something contrasting (fruits, nuts), you can get not only a tasty, but also nutritious dish for the whole family. This article discusses options for making sweet rice porridge and what you need to know to make it incredibly mouth-watering.
Which rice is better to choose for making porridge?
Sweet rice porridge is usually prepared from round varieties of rice: it cooks quite quickly and has a more starchy grain structure, which positively affects the useful qualities of such food for the body.
At the same time, when choosing rice for porridge, the principle of preparation should be taken into account: if the cereal is immediately laid with the rest of the ingredients, then it is better to take round-grain. If the rice is boiled, and then mixed with additional ingredients when serving, then you can use the variety "basmati" (long-grain), which well stores the friability of the finished porridge.
Porridge Options
Naturally, it makes no sense to limit yourself to cooking ordinary porridge from boiled rice with sugar. There are many ways to prepare this dish, especially when you consider the possibility of additional flavoring additives in the form of fruits, honey or berry syrup, nuts, spices and other useful products.
So what are the most popular cooking options on the go among rice lovers?
- Sweet rice porridge with milk is ideal for toddlers and preschool children.
- Porridge cooked on water will benefit those who wish to normalize the digestive system, because everyone knows the main property of rice is to absorb toxins.
- Sweet rice porridge with fruits and fresh berries is good for those who adhere to a healthy and low-calorie diet.
Milk porridge: recipe in a slow cooker
The simplest step-by-step recipe for sweet rice porridge in a slow cooker looks like this:
- Rinse one and a half cups of rice several times, removing excess starch, put in a multicooker bowl and pour four cups of milk.
- There, send a pinch of salt and two tablespoons of granulated sugar, close the lid of the machine and set the “Milk porridge” mode, as well as a timer: one hour.
- When the timer’s beep announces the end of the process, open the lid, mix the porridge with a spoon and evaluate: if the porridge is not thick enough, turn on the “Stewing” mode for another half hour in order to remove excess liquid from the dish.
- When serving, be sure to put a small piece of butter in a serving plate, and some chefs add a pinch of vanilla sugar for the aromatic shade of the dish.
For especially capricious children (or just kids), such porridge can be wiped through a sieve or whipped with a blender into a uniform mashed potato, then its reception will be easier and without incident.
Diet porridge on the water
The simplest recipe for sweet rice porridge for those who want to lose weight, but love rice, can be a great lifesaver, because it has only three ingredients:
- rice - one glass;
- water - five glasses;
- honey - 1-2 teaspoons (to taste).
The peculiarity of the preparation of the dietary variant of rice porridge is that it is boiled in a large amount of water, and is not steamed in a small one until the excess is completely absorbed by the cereal into excess liquid. Thanks to this cooking principle, a larger amount of starch mucus comes out of the rice and the porridge acquires a lower calorie content, as well as better friability, when compared with ordinary sweet rice porridge.
How to cook?
Boil water and pour rice into it, stirring so that the cereal does not stick to the bottom of the pan, and does not stick together, which often happens if it is not stirred in the first five minutes before the first boil. Next, let the cereal boil for ten minutes over high heat, and then lower it, making it below average, and continue cooking until rice is cooked.
Then discard the boiled rice in a colander, rinse slightly with boiled and chilled water and grease with a small amount of oil (not more than one tablespoon without a slide for the entire amount of cooked cereal). Just before serving, add honey in the porridge in the required amount, while trying not to abuse, remembering that the diet was planned.
With apples
A similar cooking principle is for sweet rice porridge on the water, but with apples stewed in oil. This type of porridge is very popular with vegans, who instead of the usual butter in such cases use coconut (unrefined), which gives the dish a special charm and amazing aroma.
Take two large apples (better than acidic varieties, but not essential) and cut into medium-sized cubes, simultaneously removing seeds and partitions. In a stewpan dissolve three tbsp. tablespoons of sugar mixed with two tablespoons of warm water, then add two tbsp. tablespoons of coconut oil and chopped apples. Stew for no more than four minutes, trying not to bring the apples to a state of porridge: they should retain their shape, but become soft. That is why the peel of apples is not removed, it helps the pieces to preserve the specified slicing.
Next, cook the sweet rice porridge, as in a diet recipe. And after the finished rice drains from excess water in a colander, move it to portioned plates. On each slide of rice, put three to four tablespoons of sweet apple mass, stirring slightly. Some sweet tooth additionally like to sprinkle such porridge with a pinch of cinnamon to give a spicy flavor. If there is no coconut oil or you are not a vegan, then you can replace it with ordinary butter (only of good quality: you do not need to use spread, margarine and similar trans-fat mixtures).
With nuts and dried fruits: based on kutya
At Christmas, many hostesses, instead of the traditional kutia of wheat and poppy seeds, prepare sweet rice porridge with raisins and nuts, motivating them to be easier, faster, and even tastier for many, because not everyone likes the specific taste of boiled wheat grain. To prepare such a porridge, you will need the following ingredients:
- one and a half glasses of rice;
- three and a half glasses of water, if desired, part can be replaced with milk to make porridge more nutritious and tasty;
- 1/3 cup raisins and as many peeled walnuts and dried apricots, cut into small cubes;
- two tablespoons butter;
- sugar or honey to taste.
Before starting to cook the dish, the rice should be washed under running, lukewarm water several times, then the prepared porridge will not have excess mucus, which is characteristic of all starchy foods. A good indicator is that the rice water is clear, not white or cloudy, as it happens in the first stage of cereal washing. Then boil the water required by the recipe, pour rice there and mix well, making sure that the grains do not stick to the bottom. This procedure should be carried out once every five minutes to control the cooking process. When the rice boils for ten minutes, you should make the fire of the stove small so that the porridge cooks more than boils, then it will be especially tasty, like from an oven.
Raisins and dried apricots are also better washed in water in order to remove small fragments of sand and dust, which are quite often found in this product and unpleasantly creak on the teeth during eating. When the rice is half cooked, add dried fruits to it and continue the heat treatment until cooked, and after cooking, add chopped nuts to the rice porridge, add honey to taste and butter, thoroughly mixing the contents of the pan. Cover it with a towel and let it stand for ten to fifteen minutes to make the rice porridge ripen and soak in the taste of the added ingredients.
Belgian porridge
This European version of the preparation of sweet rice porridge will surely appeal to lovers of aromatic dishes, which combine simplicity and grace of taste. There is nothing special in this version of rice porridge: rather simple ingredients, combined together form an amazing composition that gives great pleasure to taste buds. What is needed for cooking:
- 700 ml of fresh milk, preferably with a high fat content (Belgians love this);
- 130 grams of rice;
- 60 grams of regular sugar + two tablespoons of cane (brown);
- 1 \ 3 tsp ground cinnamon;
- saffron on the tip of a knife (this ingredient is optional, but it gives a chic shade to the dish);
- some vanilla.
Step cooking
Boil milk in a thick-walled pan and pour rice into it, stirring occasionally. Add white sugar and boil the mixture for 15 minutes. Then add spices, reduce heat to a minimum and simmer another 25 minutes, always stirring occasionally so that nothing burns. By the way, it is very convenient to use a slow cooker to prepare this type of porridge. When the dish is ready, add saffron, mix well again and turn off the heat.
Pour brown sugar in a thin layer over the entire surface of the porridge, allow it to stand for a while, so that it melts and turns into a fragrant crust. You can serve it to the table!
You can also do this not in a pan, but in portioned dishes so that the sugar crust is even and looks more attractive when served.