SWEET AND MILKY PUDDINGS FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Catalan custards with burnt-sugar topping.

Springtime brings wildflowers, rain showers, baby lambs, strawberries, and Lent.  It is the season for sweet and milky puddings. 

Traditionally, spring lambing season meant an abundance of milk (from cows and goats as well as sheep). During Cuaresma, the Lenten period of abstinence from foods such as meat, dairy foods were a stand-in. Here is a round-up of typical puddings that continue to be favorites during Lent, Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Easter. Or any spring day, rainy or bright.

Catalan Custard with Burnt-Sugar Topping (Crema Catalana, Crema de San José). Pictured above, these sweet and rich custards are typical for the festivities of Spanish Fathers' Day, San José, (March 19) as well as for Lenten meals. The recipe, with instructions for caramelizing the sugar topping, is here. 

Creamy Rice Pudding (Arroz con Leche) in the traditional style is made with milk (often goat's milk) infused with cinnamon and lemon peel. Other versions might be flavored with vanilla or rum; have cream or butter incorporated, or be sweetened with honey or molasses instead of sugar. Restaurant renditions often have a burnt-sugar topping, similar to the above custards. The recipe for old-fashioned Spanish arroz con leche is below. Here is another version Rice Pudding with Cherries and almonds.

Custard Pudding with Meringue (Natillas con Merengue). Natillas is a simple homemade pudding, typical in rural areas where fresh milk and eggs are plentiful. In La Mancha it is made with warmed sheep’s milk (Manchego cheese is a sheep’s milk cheese). The custard is poured over tortas, sponge cookies, somewhat like ladyfingers, then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. In Andalusia natillas is made with goat’s milk and served with crispy galletas, plain cookies. The pudding is especially good with fruit. It can be topped with baked meringue made with leftover egg whites. Get the recipe for Natillas here.

Honey with Fresh Cheese (Mel i Mató). So simple it is not really a pudding--a fresh, unsalted cream cheese, in Catalonia called mató, served with honey or fruit in syrup. The recipe for serving is here. 

"Burnt" Cheesecake (Quesada al Estilo de Cantábria). This is a cheesecake with no crust, more of a baked custard, made with soft, fresh cheese. Should you have a surplus of milk, you can easily make the cheese yourself. The recipes for both cheesecake and cheese making are here.

Mango Pudding with Fresh Cheese (Pudín de Mango con Cuajada). Cuajada is a sort of “custard” with no eggs. In Spain you can find cuajada in individual cups in the dairy section of grocery stores. Cuajo, an enzyme (rennet or junket), sets the custard. Cuajada is, basically, the first step in cheese making. But, instead of cutting the curds and draining off the whey, the thickened milk is poured into cups and allowed to cuajar, set. Serve it with honey, fruit and nuts, an old-fashioned traditional dessert especially in Euskadi (Basque Land). For this pudding the cuajada is mixed with fruit, sugar, and whipped cream. The recipe for the pudding is here.

Caramel Custards (Flan con Caramelo). Old-fashioned flan is as Spanish as sunshine! Baked in caramel-coated molds, the custards are easy to prepare and can be made in advance of serving. The basic recipe is here.

Dark Chocolate Cream Custards (Crema de Chocolate). Perhaps these rich custards are a bit too decadent for Lenten abstemiousness, but joyous feasting of Easter is near, when chocolate is very much on the menu. The recipe for Chocolate Custards is here.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Arroz con Leche

Serves 4-6.

6 cups whole milk

1 strip lemon peel

1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick

½ cup medium-grain rice

Pinch salt

1/3 cup sugar

Ground cinnamon, for dusting

Place the milk in a pan with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Bring just to a boil over high heat, then remove the pan from the heat and let the milk infuse 10 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the cinnamon and peel.

Add the rice and salt to the milk. Heat over medium heat until the milk begins to barely bubble. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is very soft and the milk thickens, about 45 minutes. Add the sugar and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly so the sugar doesn’t scorch on the bottom.

Ladle the hot pudding into dessert cups or a pudding bowl. Allow the pudding to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Sprinkle generously with ground cinnamon before serving.

NOT ANTONIA’S RICE PUDDING

 When my kids were in grade school, before there were school buses or school lunches and when the class hours ran from 9 am until 1 and 3 pm to 5, instead of bringing them home for lunch every day, I arranged for my two boys to eat with a family in the village, walking distance from school.

They loved Antonia’s meals, usually a sturdy soup or cocido followed by fish or filete con patatas fritas. Once or twice a week there was a postre other than fresh fruit. To this day, my kids, grown men, rave about Antonia’s arroz con leche, the Spanish version of rice pudding. 

Antonia used fresh goat’s milk for the pudding when she could get it. Otherwise bottled cow’s milk was used. Cooked with a half-cup of rice to six cups of milk, the pudding became a thick, sweet slurry flavored with lemon and cinnamon. Antonia used sugar, although honey or molasses are acceptable too. (There’s a recipe for pueblo-style rice pudding here. )

The cinnamon-lemon combo is ubiquitous in Spanish desserts, going all the way back to Moorish times. But this is not Antonia’s rice pudding. I’ve made it with vanilla instead of cinnamon!

Vanilla pods, Saõ Tomé. (Photo by Ben Searl)

Ben returned from a surf trip to Saõ Tomé (equatorial island off the west coast of Africa) with a packet of vanilla pods which grow there. 

Vanilla is the seed-bearing pod of a type of orchid, native to Mexico. With the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1519 vanilla was brought back to Spain along with chocolate.  Its name comes from the Spanish word, vaina, meaning “pod.” 

The plant never flowered and produced in Spain as it needs equatorial heat and humidity. And, it has to be pollinated by hand as there are no Mexican bees to do the job. Besides Mexico, vanilla is grown in Madagascar, Tahiti, and a few other places, such as Saõ Tomé. It is picked green and dried for several months which turns the pods almost black. 

Even though vanilla is pervasive in desserts everywhere in the world, it never really caught on in Spanish cooking.

I’ve added another non-traditional ingredient to the arroz con leche, fresh cherries, now in season. That was inspired by a promotional recipe published by El Corte Inglés.

Non-traditional rice pudding--arroz con leche--flavored with vanilla and with fresh cherries and toasted almonds.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Arroz con Leche

Use medium-short grain rice (also called “round grain”) for the pudding. That’s the same kind of rice that is used for paella.

Half a vanilla pod is sufficient for this pudding. Store the other half wrapped in plastic film in a jar. Use the whole pod if you want an intense vanilla flavor. Scrape out the dark, sticky seeds on the inside of the pod and add them to the milk. Add the scraped pod to the milk too. After infusing the pod in milk, remove the pod. The seeds—flecks of black—stay in the milk. 

Toasted sliced almonds garnish the pudding.

Serves 6

6 cups whole milk

½ vanilla pod

Strip of lemon zest

½ cup medium-short grain rice

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

8 ounces cherries + a few for garnish

2 tablespoons slivered almonds

¼ teaspoon olive or almond oil

Scrape seeds and pulp from pod.

Place the milk in a pan. Split the vanilla pod open lengthwise. Scrape out the sticky seeds on the inside and add them to the milk. Add the scraped pod and the lemon zest. Place on high heat and bring the milk just to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and let the vanilla infuse 10 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the pod and zest. The flecks of vanilla seed stay in the milk.

Add the rice and salt to the milk. Heat on medium until the milk begins to barely bubble. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is very soft and the milk thickens, about 45 minutes.

Microwave-toasted almonds.

Add the sugar to the rice. Cook 5 minutes more, stirring constantly so the sugar doesn’t scorch on the bottom.

While the rice is cooking, remove stems and pits from the cherries. Slice or chop them (makes about 1 cup). 

Mix the slivered almonds with the oil. Spread them on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on High 1 minute. Remove and stir the almonds. Repeat twice more or until the almonds are pale gold. Cool them. 

Add the cherries to the rice and cook 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Ladle the pudding into 6 dessert cups or a single serving bowl. Cover the top of the cups with plastic wrap and chill them for at least 2 hours.

To serve, garnish the pudding with whole cherries and scatter the toasted almonds on top.