Out of eggs. And flour. And sugar. There’s no chance of getting fresh supplies anytime soon, and there’s a teatime deadline looming. Hungry grandchildren will come trooping in, expecting a sweet treat after school, or a hard day’s play. What’s a grandmother to do?  Innovate, of course!

Looking around the kitchen to see what she has on hand, she notes fresh milk and homemade butter. There’s jaggery to sweeten with, so she boils up some bella joni (jaggery syrup). But what will bind it all together? Rice? What about some akki nuchhi (fine broken rice) gently roasted to give it a little bite?

That’s it. Quick! Mix it all up and steam it. Now, what do children love more than sweets? Easy, more sweets! Well, there’s some lovely Coorg honey that would go well with this…

The children have arrived and want to know “What’s for tea?!”. Without missing a beat, grandmother says “akki nucchi, bella joni pudding”. And a family favourite is born!

If you follow CoorgRecipes.com, you’ll be familiar with the recipe of the month feature, where readers contribute their family, or original recipes, to the site. Like many of you, I enjoy reading through these and trying out the recipes.

One recent contribution by Prithi Poovamma, where she shares a recipe for a dish that her grandmother served the family at tea time, caught my attention. It consists of the simplest of ingredients – broken rice, milk, jaggery, and butter, steamed together and served with honey.

In my mind’s eye, I could just see myself as a child, sitting down to a serving of this sweet confection, delighting in the flavours of roasted rice, butter, and a double whammy of sweetness from honey and jaggery! At home in Coorg recently, I decided to give the recipe a try.

Take a look.

Akki nuchhi bella joni pudding

(This featured recipe is kind courtesy CoorgRecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 250 grams small broken rice (preferably brown)
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 300 grams jaggery (cane sugar)
• 1 teaspoon salt (to enhance the taste of the jaggery)
• 100 ml milk
• 400 ml water

Method:

• Roast the broken rice until crisp.
• Boil water, add the jaggery and continue boiling until the consistency is syrupy.
• Whisk the milk with butter.
• In a large bowl, add the roasted broken rice, salt, whisked butter & milk, jaggery syrup and mix well.
• Pour into a greased dish and steam for 30 minutes or until it is firm on top. (Start checking after 30 minutes.)
• Once done, remove and serve the pudding warm with honey.
• Alternatively this pudding can also be baked in an oven @ 250 C and be served with toffee sauce.

Recipe Notes

The pudding has a lovely grainy texture and nuttiness from the roasted rice. The chewiness of the grains reminds me of Thai black rice pudding, but with a buttery flavour rather than that of coconut milk.

Possibly because of a difference in the variety of rice used, I had to increase the quantity of liquid as well as the cooking time. Next time, I will probably allow the rice to soak for a while before steaming.

To accommodate my adult palate, I also would reduce the quantity of jaggery to a third of the original amount. (My childhood sweet tooth has long been offered up to the patron saint of dentists!)

Overall, this was a most enjoyable exercise in satisfying my curiosity about a recipe. Thanks to Prithi for sharing this recipe from her grandmother, and I hope that she enjoys my interpretation of how it might have come about ! 🙂