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Susan Jung

Text Susan Jung / Photography Jonathan Wong / Styling Nellie Ming Lee
Rice is a wonderfully versatile grain. Not only is it used in savoury and sweet dishes, it's also made into alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks (including rice wine and horchata), noodles, flour and chewy "cakes" (such as mochi and neen goh).
Even the by-products, such as the bran, are used to ferment pickles or pressed to make oil. The following recipes show two very different ways to use rice.

Avgolemono
I love this soup, which is tart, light and refreshing. It should be made with home-made chicken stock, which doesn't take long to make using the carcass and any leftover meat and skin of a roast chicken: put the ingredients in a saucepan, add enough water to cover, then bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes before straining.
Ingredients:
1 litre chicken stock
60ml fresh lemon juice, or to taste
2 large egg yolks
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
 Method:
Put the rice into a fine sieve and rinse it under cold, running water. Put the chicken stock in a pan and bring to the boil. Add the rice, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the grains are tender. Remove the pan from the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks with the lemon juice. Add about 100ml of the hot stock to this mixture and whisk immediately. Whisk in another 100ml of hot stock, then, constantly stirring the contents of the pot, pour the stock/yolk/lemon mixture into the stock/rice in a steady stream.
Place over a low flame and stir constantly until the soup thickens slightly; do not simmer or the mixture might scramble. Taste the soup and add some black pepper and salt and extra lemon juice to taste.

Saffron rice pudding with rosewater, dried fruit and pistachios 
I didn't like rice pudding until a friend took me to Rice to Riches in New York, where at least a dozen flavours are available at any one time. Then, earlier this year, while dining at La Régalade Saint-Honoré in Paris, I tasted a delicious version that was light and almost fluffy in texture.
This recipe is loosely based on one I found online for the riz au lait served at L'Ami Jean in Paris, which serves it minus the saffron, fruit and nuts, but with crème anglaise and salted butter caramel.
I tested the recipe using several types of rice. Long-grained rice didn't work because the grains remained too distinct; it worked best with short-grained rice, such as arborio or the so-called "pudding rice" (which is sold at Great, Pacific Place, Admiralty). Don't use Japanese or glutinous short-grained rice.
It's essential to bake the rice with the milk until the grains are completely tender.
The amount of sugar seems scant for this quantity of pudding, but added sweet-ness comes from the sugar in the milk, which is concentrated as it reduces during baking. You can add a little more sugar, if you like.
Ingredients: 
800ml whole milk
100 grams short-grained rice
½ tsp fine sea salt
50 grams granulated sugar, or to taste
A large pinch of saffron threads
1 vanilla bean
1-2 tsp rosewater
400ml cream, chilled
80 grams dried fruit (such as cranberries or cherries, or chopped dates, figs or apricots)
80 grams shelled, unsalted pistachios
 Method:
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius.
Put the milk, rice, salt, sugar and saffron threads into a medium-sized pan (I used enamelled cast-iron). Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use a paring knife to scrape out the tiny black seeds. Put the seeds and the pod into the pan.
Place the pan over a low-medium flame and bring to a simmer, stirring often. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid then place in the oven and bake at 140 degrees for 60 to 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
It's ready when the rice is very tender and the milk is mostly reduced but still light in texture (it will firm up in the fridge). Remove the vanilla pod (rinse it well under running water then let it dry before putting it in a jar of sugar to make vanilla-sugar). Cool the rice mixture to lukewarm. Mix in the rosewater then refrigerate the pudding for at least an hour.
Increase the oven heat to 180 degrees, place the pistachios on a pan and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the nuts are toasted. Let them cool to room temperature.
Whip the cream until it forms light peaks. Add about one-third of the whipped cream to the rice mixture, stirring it well to lighten it. The rice mixture will be very stiff, so it's easiest to mix in the cream with your hand.
Mix in the remaining whipped cream in two additions, folding it in gently to maintain as much volume as possible. Gently mix in the dried fruit and toasted pistachios. Spoon the pudding into bowls. If you like, scatter dried fruit, toasted nuts and dried rose petals (buy the type used to make tisanes) over the top before serving. 
 


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Susan Jung's recipes

How to cook  avgolemono, a soup with rice, and how to cook saffron rice pudding

Avgolemono, a soup made with rice. Photo: Instagram/@around_the_bay_and_away

Saffron rice pudding with rosewater, dried fruit and pistachios. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Lifestyle

Food & Drink

We eat it; we drink it (and get drunk on it); we pickle with it; and we press it to make oil. A world without rice doesn't bear thinking about


A world without rice doesn't bear thinking about. You can use it to make sweet dishes, such as saffron rice pudding, and savoury ones, such as avgolomeno, a soup.


Food and Drinks

How to cook avgolemono, a soup with rice, and how to cook saffron rice pudding

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}We eat it; we drink it (and get drunk on it); we pickle with it; and we press it to make oil. A world without rice doesn't bear thinking about

We eat it; we drink it (and get drunk on it); we pickle with it; and we press it to make oil. A world without rice doesn't bear thinking about