The Good Cook - Rice Pudding

I love rice pudding, especially when it's homemade. It reminds me of my childhood in Germany where it was served with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Last night I tried out the Simon Hopkinson's recipe for Rice Pudding from the BBC series, The Good Cook.

The recipe calls for paella rice. I was wondering, do I have to use paella rice to make rice pudding? Or can I use other kinds of rice like risotto or short grain rice? Yes! This time I used short grain rice but risotto rice also works well for making a nice creamy rice pudding.

Tip : If you've never made rice pudding before it's worth bearing in mind that it takes a long time to cook and prepare. You should allow at least 2 hours.

I followed the recipe more or less as written except, as mentioned before, I used short grain rice. I also used semi-skimmed milk instead of full fat. The recipe includes cream any way to make it rich and the finished dish did not suffer as a result. When you're making it, it seems like you are using far too much liquid in relation to the rice, but as it cooks it soon reduces down.

I also noticed that the ingredient list mentions salt, but in the directions it never actually tells you at which point to add the salt. I didn't bother with the salt since the butter I was using was salted.

 

I served my delicious rice pudding with home made apple sauce and a sprinkle of cinnamon. 

Apart from the fact that it's delicious and comforting, it's worth making just for the lovely smell of vanilla and cream that permeates the house as it's baking!