*A Simple Rice Pudding*
Serves 6 Easy to make, using simple ingredients . . . but there's nothing simple about the flavour here. It's fabulous. 200g of short grained rice (arborio or pudding rice) (1 cup) 750ml of full fat milk, or a mixture of low fat milk and heavy cream (3 1/4 cups) (I like to use the low fat milk and cream myself. It's really nice.) 7 to 8 TBS golden caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla bean paste pinch salt
1/2 tsp of orange extract, or 1 TBS finely grated orange zest 1 TBS unsalted butter Jam to serve (optional)
Put the rice into a colander and rinse it under cold running water until the water runs clear. Drain well. Put the rice in a saucepan. Cover it with cold water. Bring it to the boil and then allow it to boil for about 5 minutes. Drain well. Return the drained rice to the saucepan along with the full fat milk, or the mixture of low fat milk and cream. Add the salt along with 1 TBS of the sugar, the vanilla bean paste and the orange extract or zest. Bring the mixture just up to the boil. (Little bubbles should just appear around the edge of the saucepan.) Turn the heat down to the lowest temperature and pop a lid on, leaving it just ajar. Cook for a further 30 to 35 minutes, giving it a good stir every 10 minutes or so, cooking until the rice is very soft and almost melting in the mouth. Most of the liquid should be absorbed. The pudding should be creamy, not too runny or too dry. If it is too dry, it is okay to add a bit more milk or cream to slacken it a bit. Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and enough of the remaining sugar that you want as far as taste goes. You may not want the full amount. I like to put a dollop of raspberry jam in the bottom of the serving dishes and then spoon the warm rice pudding over top. You can serve this warm or at room temperature. It is delicious either way. |
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