Warm Coconut Rice Pudding

First, I wanted to let you know that during the week of January 23, 2012, I am being featured as "Chef of the Week" over at eRecipe.com. I'm fairly new to this website but what I like about it is that it gives me the nutritional breakdown for the recipes I enter into their site. I've already started posting some of them but look for more to come in the future. 


I recently received a subscription from Cooking Light Magazine for Christmas and was thrilled. I had been a subscriber years ago, but I rarely found the time to read it, let alone cook anything out of it with my hectic schedule. As I was flipping through the January/February 2012 issue last weekend, I came across a recipe for this Warm Coconut Rice Pudding. Now, I'm not a big fan of any pudding (or jello, it's a texture thing), but my hubby LOVES rice pudding and I can honestly say I've made it for him once in the almost 17 years we've been married. Instead, I rely on my MIL to make it or buy Kozy Shack.   I happened to have all of the ingredients, except for coconut milk on hand, so I improvised and used some Coco Lopez Creme of Coconut (hidden in the back of my pantry leftover from last summer's Pina Coladas...ahhh...could really go for one of those right about now..but I digress). He said it was good but also said that he preferred the original kind better. I tasted it and to me it was a little sweet, but I'm sure it wouldn't be as sweet if you used the coconut milk like it called for. I can tell you that none of it went in the garbage so it must not have been that bad. :)

Warm Coconut Rice Pudding
Original Recipe Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2012
1 c. Water
1c. Uncooked Instant Rice
1/2 c. Sugar
3 tbsp. Cornstarch
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 c. 2% Milk
2 Large Egg Yolks
1 c. Light Coconut Milk (I substituted 1/2c. Coco Lopez Creme of Coconut)
1/4c. Flaked Sweetened Coconut
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Cardamom (I didn't use this either)


Boil water then stir in rice. Cover pot, reduce heat and let simmer 5 minutes then remove from heat and set aside. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small bowl. Next, combine 1/4 cup 2% milk and yolks in a bowl using a whisk. Then add the sugar mixture to the milk mixture. Bring remaining 1 1/4 cups of 2% milk and the coconut milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Gradually add the hot milk to the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that you don't cook the eggs. Return milk mixture to a pan and bring to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in cooked rice then add the coconut, vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom. Serves 6 (1/2 cup pudding)


Points+=6pts per serving (made as originally published)


Enjoy!