My canistel was on the verge of becoming mushy and funky this weekend, and I knew I needed to quickly end its fruity life. I thought of duplicating custards from Miami Dish or Food for Thought, but I just didn’t want to expend that much effort on dessert. Instead, I modified a coconut rice pudding recipe from epicurious.com, using a higher coconut milk to milk ratio and stirring in the last of my canistel.

This pudding is my kind of dessert. Dump ingredients into a pot. Simmer. Stir. Serve. A short ingredient list and little effort yielded a rich and satisfying, yet humble, dessert.

In the photo, you may detect hunks of canistel that just refused to be broken up with a spoon. If lumps offend you, consider whirling the canistel and milks in a blender before you begin cooking the pudding. 

Coconut-Canistel Rice Pudding
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 cup whole milk
1 cup mashed canistel
1 1/2 cups cold, cooked long-grain rice, prepared in salted water
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
Combine coconut milk, milk, and canistel in a medium-sized pot. You may need to blend the mixture or whisk violently if you don’t want canistel clumps in the pudding. Add rice, sugar, and vanilla, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve warm.

Serves 4 to 6

This soup is as densely packed with protein and (healthy) fat as a vegan meal can be, hence the name famine stew—so donned by my coworkers.
Caloric stalwarts of the meal are peanut butter and tofu. The tofu is pureed, blended in and hidden from sight for tofu haters.

Sweet potatoes and tomatoes lend the orange hue, and chunks of bright bell peppers add a hint of fruit to this African-inspired dish. As with all of my meals, I tend to add more salt than what’s found in the original recipe, but the soup lacks oomph without enough sodium.

William and I love (love) this dish. It’s creamy and rich—maybe even luxurious if it weren’t so cheap to prepare. And when ladled over rice, it fills us more than sufficiently.

Where there’s hunger, I highly recommend famine stew.

Famine Stew
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
2 to 3 teaspoons coarse sea or kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups pureed tomatoes
5 cups vegetable stock
1 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 14-ounce block soft or silken tofu, drained
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups cooked rice

Instructions
In a large pot, heat oil on medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers, sweet potatoes, and ginger; cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, cooking 3 minutes more. Stir in cayenne, 2 teaspoons salt, and black pepper. Cook for a minute more, and then add the pureed tomatoes, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add peanut butter to the pot, and stir until incorporated. Combine 2 cups (or more) of the soup and the tofu in a blender; puree until smooth. Pour the tofu mixture into the pot, and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt and cayenne as necessary.

Serve over rice, topped with sliced scallions.

Serves 8

I made this Red Rice (an approximation of my Mom’s recipe) to accompany the last few links of my Dad’s venison sausage. It’s a humble, Cajun-inspired combination and one-pot wonder. I used my trusty cast iron frying pan to cook the bacon that flavored the dish; saute onion, bell pepper and garlic; and finish cooking the tomato-based rice.

The rice starts on the stovetop but finishes baking, covered, in a hot oven. And instead of baking the sausage on a separate pan, I just popped four links atop the tin foil that covered the rice. This pleased our resident dish washer.

To add some green to the meal and counteract the bacon grease, I made a pan of garlicy spinach, as well. And although it would have fed a normal family of four, William ate half of the rice and sausage. I took care of the spinach.

Red Rice
5 strips bacon
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce (or 2 tablespoons tomato paste mixed into 3/4 cup water)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons hot sauce

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat a large cast iron frying pan on medium heat. Add bacon strips, and cook until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on a paper towel. (There shouldn’t be tons of bacon grease left in the pan, but if you’d like, you can remove all but one tablespoon of the fat).When bacon is cool, break it into 1/4-inch pieces.

Add onion, bell pepper, and bay leaf to the pan, and cook until vegetables are soft, 8 to 10  minutes. Add garlic and oregano, and cook 2 minutes more.

Stir in rice, and toast for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, black pepper and hot sauce. Top top the rice-tomato mixture with crumbled bacon. Cover the pan (tin foil works just fine for the cast iron) and place into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until rice is tender.

Serves 4

This meal of rice and stuffed poblanos surprised me. It filled my every vegetarian yearning—with carbs, cheese, vegetables and protein all piled into a pretty heap on our plates.

For this initial preparation, I followed a recipe for green rice with stuffed poblanos from Madhur Jaffrey’s “World Vegetarian” cookbook. Although the green rice was bland, the idea of heating cheese-stuffed peppers over a simmering pot of rice has potential for a slew of meals.

Roast a few peppers (any large variety, really), stuff them with cheese (or other pre-cooked filling) and heat them on top of simmering (or baking) rice for seven to 10 minutes.

Here are a few ideas:

• Yellow rice with poblanos
• Spanish rice with poblanos or red peppers
• Herby pilaf with mozzarella-stuffed red peppers
• Raisin- and cinnamon-studded rice with feta-stuffed red peppers
• Pilau with paneer-stuffed peppers
• Garlic rice with pimento-cheese stuffed peppers

Throw in vegetables, beans, cooked meats, spices, etc. Possibilities abound. 

Here’s the basic (generic) preparation:
Roast peppers under the broiler, turning as skin begins to blacken. When all sides are blistered and darkened, remove from oven, and cool slightly. Remove skins.

Begin cooking rice according to recipe.

Meanwhile, cut a lengthwise slit in the peppers. Remove seeds and stems. Stuff peppers with cheese/filling, enclosing all of the filling inside. 

In the last 7 to 10 minutes of the rice’s cooking time, lay peppers atop the rice and heat through until cheese is melted.

Remove peppers from the pot. Serve rice topped with stuffed peppers.