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Timbales of Rice and Olives
2 cups boiled rice 2 cups milk 3/4 cup chopped ripe olives 2 tablespoons chopped celery or 1/4 teaspoon celery salt 1 teaspoon sage or grated onion 1 teaspoon salt 3 eggs, well beaten Mix the ingredients. Pour into oiled cups. Set the cups into a pan of hot water, and bake till the timbales are firm. Remove from the oven, and allow them to stand for a few minutes. Remove from the cups, and serve with tomato sauce.
A savoury baked custard bound with rice, cooked in a water bath. The hinge is heat control: the egg must set gently, and a hot oven will curdle and weep it.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. Bake at 325-350F. Anything hotter will make the custard grainy and force water out of it.
- TimingIn 6-ounce cups, expect 30-40 minutes. They are done when the centre is just set and a knife slipped in comes out clean; the residual heat during the standing period finishes them.
- The water bath"A pan of hot water" is not specified further; the usual practice is water reaching about halfway up the cups, poured in hot but not boiling. Lining the pan with a folded towel helps keep the bases from cooking faster than the sides.
- Oiled cupsCustard cups, ramekins or dariole moulds. Oil them thoroughly, including the rim, and run a thin knife round the edge before turning out.
- Ripe olivesIn American usage of this kind, "ripe olives" generally indicates the canned black California olive, mild and barely salty, rather than a brined Kalamata or oil-cured type. Substituting a sharply salted olive will overwhelm the custard; if you do, cut the added salt.
- SageA full teaspoon of sage, if dried and ground, is assertive by current taste. Half a teaspoon is closer to modern palates, and the grated onion alternative the recipe allows gives a much gentler result.
- SaltIf you use celery salt rather than chopped celery, reduce the teaspoon of salt to about half, and taste the mixture before the eggs go in.
- YieldAbout six timbales, enough for six as a first course or three or four as a main dish with the tomato sauce and a green vegetable.