Red Wine and Cherry Rice Pudding: A Cure for a Bad Day

I had a rough day at school today and came home all cranky and irritable. Every week Anthony and I have dinner with our small group: two other couples from our church with whom we share life and faith, struggles and joys. I am so blessed to be a part of this group full of such rich friendships. (Shout out to Dane, Julie, Bonnie, and Charles! By putting you on our blog it basically means you’re famous now…)

So every week one couple provides the weekly meal, and the other couples bring a side dish of some sort. This week it was my turn to bring dessert, which is not really my forte in the first place, and in the second place I am gluten-free for Lent so that really limits dessert options. But then I remembered this INCREDIBLE rice pudding that my mom made once and I thought “Oh how lovely. How can you go wrong with milky rice, tangy cherries, and rich red wine?” And ,so, I proceeded to press play on my Dixie Chicks play list, pour myself a class of South African pinotage, and begin making this delectable dessert. Now, listen people, there is NO bad day that the Dixie Chicks, red wine, and leisurely cooking in your cornflower-blue and daffodil-yellow kitchen cannot cure. Except that the Dixie Chicks are my spirit band and they may not be your spirit band… so when you are having a bad day you should probably just listen to whoever sings to your soul.

So… this recipe is not really that healthy (more healthy that other desserts, though, I suppose), nor is it that cheap (I spent about $17 on ingredients) unless you already have a lot of the ingredients in your pantry, but it is delicious and it’s ok to splurge a little cash and calories when you’re having a bad day. Here’s how you make it:

Ingredients:

-1 cup of red wine
-¾ cup of brown sugar (for the sauce)
-1 pint of dried cherries
-1 quart of whole milk (but I used a can of light coconut milk with 2 cups of whole)
-1 cup of basmati rice
-1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
-The zest of 1 lemon
-4 tablespoons of brown sugar (for the rice)

Directions:

1.Heat the wine and ¾ cup of sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the cherries and reduce the sauce down until it’s thick (this never really happened for me so whatever)

2.Combine the milk, rice, cinnamon sticks, and zest. Heat over low-medium heat. Simmer for about an hour. Stir frequently and add more milk if necessary.

3.Add the sugar to the rice mixture and stir until dissolved. Remove the cinnamon sticks.

4.Serve the pudding and top it with that incredible wine-cherry sauce! Oh baby!

I just have to say that I am not very good at following recipes and am SO my mother’s daughter in that way. She NEVER follows the recipe, always flits off doing her own thing, and sometimes gets a little crazy with ingredients. I love that about her though :) .This recipe turned out delicious when both she and I made it, so I think that is a good sign. It’s fool-proof … if you don’t follow the directions exactly it’s still going to be good. Feel free to substitute and explore! Enjoy, everyone!

(The “skeleton” for this recipe came from the Everything Mediterranean Cookbook by Dawn Altomari-Rathjen and Jennifer M. Bendelius. I, of course, changed a few things up.)