Whatever you do, don’t tell your kids what these delightful little fritters are made of. If you let them know it’s leftover rice, chances are they’ll walk away. In fact, my copy of the Oxford Teenager-to-English Dictionary equates leftovers with something a little less pleasant than rat poison. Let them figure it out on their own and I can pretty much guarantee they’ll be through most of them before anyone catches on.
Instead, tell them the back story of these creamy, bite-sized cakes. Tell them how slaves in New Orleans used to sell them to parishioners after Sunday services calling, “Belle calas, tout chaud!” Tell them how the recipe came from West Africa with the slaves and how the money they earned was used to buy their freedom.
Not all foods come with such history and fewr taste this good on a sunny Sunday morning with a great cup of tea. You can read more about the legend of the calas and the emotions they still evoke in New Orleans as well as how they are being saved from extinction in this Salon article by Francis Lam.
Caught somewhere between a donut and a bowl of rice pudding (leaning towards the donut end of the spectrum), calas are light and airy, yet creamy and very moist with just a little crunch near the crust. It really does take a while to figure out they are made of rice.
Calas are also dead simple to make. I’ll never throw out leftover rice again.
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