DISTRIBUTE AND/OR EDIT FREELY --Ken [and please forward to the
Orthodox women's list - being of the male persuation, I can't go
there :) ] Here is a simple Rice Milk recipe that I've been
using over the past week, very happily, and it works well, is
incredibly inexpensive compared to regular milk, and it tastes
(to me anyhow) about the same as skim milk or powdered milk. I
use a blender, but perhaps there are other ways to do this. RICE
MILK: 1 cup of cooked rice 4 cups water optional: 1 tsp vanilla
extract (or almond or whatever) Put ingredients in blender.
Blend until rice is chopped up well and pretty well mixed. Put
in refrigerator and shake before using. [as some of the rice
will separate from the water] Nutritionally, it works out to
about the same calories as regular milk, but I think that rice
milk is fat free, and entirely Lent/fast-okay. You can play
around with this. You might try chopping up the rice before you
cook it to see if it makes for smaller cooked rice pieces, or
you could try cooking the rice longer, or with more water. As
far as I know, any kind of rice will do, although I would assume
that Minute Rice or Parboiled rice might not work out quite as
well (as they don't work out well in Rice Pudding), but I could
be wrong here. I've only tried plain ol' white rice for this
(the stuff that takes 20 minutes on the stove or 10 minutes in
the microwave - p.s. - microwave cooked rice is easier as it
does not burn and stick to the pot as easily). You could try
using left over rice from chinese food takeout (I'm sure at
least some of you out there are taking advantage of fast-okay
foods available from the local chinese food takeout) The vanilla
makes a nice touch too. You could try adding cocoa and a little
sugar to make rice chocolate milk, or try using it in cooking to
see how it fares. It's my first week using rice milk, and if
nothing else, it tastes just dandy in coffee and tea :) The cost
of this is amazingly inexpensive - frugal folks take note!! -
only 1/3 cup of rice is needed in this. It takes 1/3 cup of rice
and 2/3 cup of water to make the one cup of cooked rice. Then
you're adding *more* water (the 4 cups) into the blender...
around where I live (New Jersey USA), a five pound bag of rice
is only $1.99, you have enough rice there to make quart after
quart after quart. (It tastes great on cereal, especially when
you make it with the vanilla :) ). I don't know how one would
make it without a blender - but we've survived thousands of
years without electric blenders, and rice milk has undoubtedly
been around nearly as long, so I'm sure there's ways to make it
without one. Perhaps a wire whisk whipping about the cooked rice
would suffice - or maybe a mortor and pestle - or a sharp knife
or putting it in a tough cloth bag and whacking it a few times
against a wall. Even a rolling pin might work to squish down the
rice to a point that it would mix well with the quart of water.
To those with other electrical appliances instead of a blender -
a food processor *might* do the trick, or perhaps an electric
mixer - I'm no whiz around the kitchen but I wouldn't be
surprised if these things would work too. To reiterate one of
the recipies that has made me happier about cooking than I've
been in a long time: RICE MILK 1 cup cooked rice 4 cups water
optional: 1 tsp vanilla or other extract Put in blender (water
first before rice probably works a little better, so that the
rice doesn't get clogged down in the chopping mechanism), and
blend until relatively smooth. Put into container (Mason jar
with lid, that sort of thing), and shake well before using. Hope
this is found to be useful :) -Kenneth, whose Lenten exception
is Slimfast, and has happily lost 15 lbs already in the past 4
weeks, and is learning the secrets of making tasty cabbage soup.
