Black and White Forbidden Rice Pudding
Not only is today a leap day, it’s also the start of APEX – aka med school classes again. It’s weird being in the classroom instead of the hospital or clinic on rotations – feels like first year all over again.
APEX is a two week bootcamp prepping us for residency – topics range from clinical (managing shock, cardiac emergencies, common inpatient infections) to ethics (bias and informed consent, genetic ethics) to US healthcare (Medicare, legal issues) to communication (end of life skills, patient handoffs) to procedures / imaging (EKGs, ultrasound).
As I’ve been off finalizing wedding prep and being in full artist mode, it’s time to shift back into the doctor mode. These classes aren’t meant to teach us anything new, but to refresh our knowledge and mentally prepare us for intern year – where we’re the front line of patient care with absolute responsibility.
Just mildly daunting. I admit I feel far from being a full fledged doctor at this point.
Sometimes I do feel like I have a dual life – one as a med student/researcher and the other as a wedding planner / artist / Etsy crafter.
As much as I love Pinterest and being Martha Stewart the past month (I know I could make a living on etsy for wedding products alone at this point), it’s definitely not as fulfilling, so I’m looking forward to exercising the science part of my brain again.
While we’re talking about split personas, here is a pretty split rice pudding loosely adapted from Simply Recipes – there’s regular white rice and there’s forbidden black rice. In ancient China, this rice only for the emperor and royalty since it was so “rare” and “superior.” It was also considered to have medicinal properties. You can read more about its fascinating history here in NPR.
For me, the forbidden black rice is like residency – superior with medicinal properties. Hopefully I make it to that point!
Black and White Rice Pudding
Ingredients
1/3 cup uncooked white rice
1/3 cup uncooked black rice
4 cups milk, divided
1/4 cup white sugar, divided
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, divided
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of milk and white rice to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is tender, about 25 minutes. Simultaneously, do the same with 2 cups of milk and black rice. Stir both pots frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the divided sugar to each rice pudding.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg and slowly incorporate half into each rice puddings, vigorously whisking to avoid curdling. Add vanilla extract and cinnamon to each pot. Stir, on low heat, for 10 minutes, until thickened. Serve warm or cold.
So this is what a Chinese royal dessert looks like. Black rice is healthier than white rice so they weren't too far-fetched in believing it had magical properties
this is a most clever and well-executed creation! lovely presentation. 🙂
I just had forbidden rice recently and I do agree that it is superior to regular rice, both in taste & nutrition-wise. What a great idea to combine the two – it makes it look fantastic! Good luck with your residency too!
I look forward to trying forbidden black rice…especially if it's in rice pudding!
What a striking and beautiful dessert. I'm definitely going to try this!
plus rice looks cooler when its dark!
Thanks! Felt like making some zebras 🙂
Thanks for the well wishes Linda 🙂
Rice pudding is one of my favorite desserts (even though B says it's diabetes in a glass haha)
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it!
What an interesting idea! I never thought of using black rice for rice pudding before. Definitely want to try this 🙂
This looks amazing! Will have to try this out!
Yummy!
Looks so good!!
I have never heard of black rice. It looks amazing!
LOVE rice pudding…I've never seen black rice pudding and this looks awesome
Yum! We eat black rice a lot at home, great idea using it for pudding! Good luck on your wedding planning ~ you are almost there 🙂
What a pretty display! Looks pretty easy to make.. my favorite kind of recipes 🙂
Gorgeous dish Natalie- such an awesome use of black rice! Wow, it really sounds like you have a lot on your plate these days- good luck with everything. Starting residency can definitely be daunting, but you'll do great! Plus it's good to be a little scared, it's the over confident interns that really worry me!
Black rice is usually a little firmer, so just cook it a little longer – otherwise it's similar to regular white rice pudding 🙂
yes there's so many colors in rice – black, purple, red, and more 🙂
My mom and I like black rice – supposedly it's healthier (like brown rice to white perhaps), but regardless it's just pretty 🙂
Thanks for the wedding wishes! The countdown is so close
Hi Sonali, exciting and nervous indeed! I will not be one of those overconfident know-it-all interns haha (although I don't know a single person in my class who isn't a little worried about the leap of responsibility)
Natalie, I have never heard of black rice. This does look good though. I am going to give it a try. Thank you for posting the recipe.
Looks delicuous! Great blog post. Your blog is also beautiful!
How interesting. I've never heard of black rice before. I will have to investigate further.