Rice pudding is not just a winter dish
Cold rice pudding with apricots.
Cold rice pudding with fresh apricots. The dish is served chilled, proving that rice puddings are not just for autumn and winter seasons. It is inspired by the French-influenced Royal dinners at the beginning of the 19th century in Romania, where it used to be served at official receptions as Abricots à la Conde. Layered in a tall glass with rice pudding, apricots, cherries, whipped cream and an apricot or vanilla sauce, it was elegant and refreshing.
The exact recipe is in my book “Tava,” but the basic idea is to make a rice pudding and a custard with wine instead of milk, then chill them in the fridge. Serve the rice surrounded by the sauce and with fresh apricots on top (or you can roast or stew them). If you want to take it to the next level, you can make a classic crème anglaise with egg yolks, while folding the whisked egg whites into the rice pudding after it cools. You can also roast or poach the apricots and add almond flakes and whipped cream.
Quite a few dishes in the Romanian dessert repertoire start with rice pudding. Aside from the classic rice pudding dish of my childhood, which is served with sour cherry jam or dusted with cinnamon, we also have a layered rice pudding with apples and a rice pudding cake baked in the oven.
Rice from the Banat region in south-west Transylvania
We also have some experience cultivating rice in Romania. The idea was literally planted by the Ottoman Empire, but it lacked know-how and logistics. In the following century, the Habsburg Empire took over these lands and invited Italians to improve and manage rice fields, building an ingenious irrigation system still functioning today. The fields around Partoș produce 50.000 tones of rice per year (not enough to feed a nation, but impressive for a country that adores wheat and corn.
For a little more about this fantastic region, the Banat, you can also read this post about the Swabians.