Créme de riz is a nourishing and tasty hot cereal especially suited to cold winter mornings.
High in fibre and B vitamins, this cereal is quick to prepare and enjoyable served either sweet or savory.
Toasted ground rice is available in health food stores, but making your own is easy and will ensure freshness.
ingredients
2/3 cup toasted brown rice
3 1/2 cups water
1/4 t sea salt
step 1: toasting the rice
For efficiency, we toast a large quantity of rice at a time and store it in a jar for daily use. Each morning, we simply grind what we need.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Place 3 cups of organic short-grain brown rice on a baking sheet. (You can make any quantity, but use a second sheet if toasting more than 3 cups of rice.)
- Toast rice in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Rotate the sheet halfway through baking.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely. Store rice in a glass jar.
step 2: cooking the cereal
- Place toasted rice in an electric coffee grinder. Grind to a fine meal.*
- Bring water to a boil in a kettle.
- Pour ground rice into a pot and place over medium-low heat.
- With whisk in hand, slowly add the boiling water to the pot, stirring vigorously to prevent lumping. Stir in salt.
- Cover the pot and cook for 12 minutes.
- Halfway through the cooking time, stir the cereal and check for consistency. If the cereal appears dry or lumpy, stir in 1/3 cup more water, cover and continue cooking.
- Remove the cereal from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
Makes 2 to 3 servings.
Serve with fruit compote or maple syrup and soy milk. Or try it savory (our favourite) with gomashio, flax oil and grated ginger. Gomashio is a versatile condiment made from ground sesame seeds and salt.
Risa Salsberg has been cooking vegetarian for over 25 years and is a graduate of Dubrille Culinary. She has studied macrobiotics and whole foods in California and trained at Sanko-in, a Buddhist nunnery specializing in shojin ryori (traditional Buddhist vegetarian cookery). Risa is currently studying fine arts in Vancouver. Craig Walker first began cooking vegetarian in tree planting camps. Craig has studied macrobiotics at the Vega Study Center and has cooked professionally in Japan.