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! 

Jam Sponge Pudding

The end result should look something like this!

Traditional pudding recipes ask you to cover and steam a pudding for about 1-2 hours.  Unless you have an Aga or something that is on anyway, this takes a great deal of fuel.  I suppose it could be done in a modern steamer - it might be worth a go.  However, I discovered some time ago that your basic "steamed pudding" also cooks beautifully in the microwave in only 3 minutes. 

This recipe is adapted from one of my most useful baking books: The Anniversary Cook-Book (sic) of the Dumfriesshire Federation SWRI.  That's the Scottish Women's Rural Institute to you and me, or simply, "The Rural".  The cookbook was a long-ago gift from an aunt, and what The Rural doesn't know about baking isn't worth knowing.

This recipe is easily halved.

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 eggs, and their weight in margarine and sugar

5 oz self-raising flour

3 tbsp raspberry jam

Method

Cream (beat together) the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  

Add the beaten egg and the flour alternately to the creamed mixture.

Cut 1 tbsp of jam through the cake mixture, but not really mixing.  (you can omit this, and save a spoonful of jam)

Put the other 2 tbsp jam in the bottom of a greased pudding bowl.  Spoon the cake mixture on top.

To Steam: cover with greaseproof paper (make a fold in it to allow for expansion, and secure with string or an elastic band).  Steam for one hour.

To Microwave: cover with clingfilm or simply a plate, and microwave for 3 minutes only.

To serve, loosen the edges with a knife, then turn out onto a plate so that the jam drips down the side.  To achieve the heights of true comfort food, serve with custard!

Day 13: Chocolate Cravings, and the Lack Thereof

Almost two weeks in, and I am quite astonished by the actual lack of chocolate cravings.  Considering that I used to get through at least a couple of bars a day, I was expecting withdrawal symptoms along the same lines as the cola ones.  But so far, nothing. 

Maybe it is because of all the wholesome food I am eating.  I really haven't been as hungry as usual.  But I admit it - the lack of desire for Dairy Milk may also have been helped by copious helpings of chocolate pudding.

Yes indeed.  Last Saturday, while using up the eggs, I made a chocolate pudding.  I actually doubled the quantities, because the original only used one egg, and I needed to get through more.  And it turned out huge!  It would have fed 12.  I have had to freeze some of it.

It strikes me that keeping a small supply of pudding is a very sensible move.  This recipe may be quite high in sugar and fat, but a portion genuinely fills one up, and so it is not 'empty calories' in quite the same way as a bar of chocolate.  It is also entirely natural and wholesome.  Pudding is also true comfort food, unlike these fluffy little desserts that never satisfy.  And the whole frugal project will be that much more bearable with a few treats along the way.

Recipe posted below!

Today's Expenditure (bus fares and one bread roll) : £3.41