Monday 8 August 2011

Rice Pudding

serves 6

Ingredients
4oz (100g) pudding rice
2oz (50g) sugar
2 pints (1 litre) milk
pinch salt
1 oz (30g) butter (optional)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
2oz (50g) sultanas or raisins (optional)

Method
Place the rice, sugar, milk, and salt in the slow cooker.  Cook on Low for around 3 hours, or until the pudding is thick and creamy.  (If there seems to be too much milk, cook uncovered for a while.  But beware: it thickens up considerably as it cools.)

If baking this in the oven, grease a casserole dish, and bake the mixture at 160C (140C fan oven) for 2-3 hours, until the skin is golden and the pudding creamy.


Notes
I love this pud - it is the best comfort food around, and I have been known to dine exclusively on this.  But if serving it as a dessert, it will make 6 hearty helpings quite comfortably.  For my own consumption, I like it very thick and not too sweet, and will often reduce the sugar here. 

You can make it simple, or jazz up the recipe with any or all of the optional ingredients.  Obviously, it is tastiest made with whole milk, but the starch in the rice makes even skimmed milk creamy.  It is lovely served hot with a dollop of jam on top.

The advantage of making it in the slow cooker is that it does not burn or form a skin.  If you let what remains cool, you can stir in some creme fraiche or natural yogurt and serve cold in a glass with some fruit coulis or even chocolate sauce.  This makes a surprisingly posh dessert! 

4 comments:

Jane said...

I do like rice pudding. It's probably something allowed whilst reducing cholesterol. And all the fruit things you could eat with it would be good. I've always vaguely thought I could probably cook it myself instead of buying the little tub I was eating.

The Intolerant Baker said...

Hooray - a pudding Jane can eat! :-) It genuinely is easy to make, and you could use skimmed milk, which lowers the fat content to almost zero. You could even try omitting the sugar, and stirring in some liquid sweetener afterwards - I am not sure if this would work, though. (Personally, I tend to find the little tubs far too sweet.) To get closer to the consistency of the little tubs, you may need to stir in some natural yogurt after the whole thing has cooled down. The only problem with making it for yourself is stopping yourself eating the whole lot in one go!

JohnO said...

It won't do much for the frugality of the dish, but I substitute half the quantity of milk for coconut milk (or even all coconut milk if I'm making less).
Very delicious.

The Intolerant Baker said...

Hi John. That does sound lovely. Maybe a more frugal version, especially as an accompaniment to a curry, would be to use a knob of creamed coconut.