Creamy cardamom rice pudding

I’ve been thinking for a while that rice pudding is the perfect frugal dessert and it was time I made it again but it’s quite hard to track down old-fashioned pudding rice these days.

A food writer friend of mine, Andrea Leeman, suggested I try her recipe which uses arborio rice, an ingredient you may well already have in your store cupboard. She also uses evaporated milk which gives it a wickedly creamy texture - and cardamom - which bestows the exotic, scented taste of a kheer.

Evaporated milk is again hard to find in the small tin she recommends which bumps up the cost a bit. Unless of course you make double the quantity which is probably not a good idea given that I’ve already been digging into it as a fridge snack for the past couple of days.

I made it in the Aga but not following the recommended Aga method which involves giving it half an hour in the top oven before transferring it to the lower simmering oven. I found the rice clumped together a bit in between stirring it which could possibly have been avoided if I’d washed it first. And it needed a slightly shorter time than the Aga book recommended - hence the pale caramel colour.


I served it with forced rhubarb poached with a little ginger, a perfect seasonal accompaniment though I do find it a bit ironic that a home grown ingredient that’s in season should be more expensive than imported strawberries.

Here’s Andy's recipe with my notes in italic:

Serves 4 or one person for 4 greedy days

50g arborio or pudding rice (I used 55g)
500ml whole milk
50g caster sugar (I found this a tad sweet. I’d probably reduce it to 40g another time)
170g tin evaporated milk
2-3 cardamom pods (I used 3, crushing them lightly before I added them)

Pre-heat oven to 150°C/Gas mark 2

Stir the rice into the milk in a saucepan (it might be an idea to wash it first). Add the sugar and heat slowly, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the evaporated milk and cardamom. Spoon into a baking dish, cover it with foil and cook for 2½ hours, stirring once an hour (maybe every 45 minutes).

Andy says: "This looks a pathetically small amount of rice and disproportionate quantity of milk liquid, but it all gets absorbed in the cooking. If necessary, add more milk once the pudding has cooled and thickened" (a good idea, this).

Andy’s version doesn’t include skin, of course, which may outrage those of you who think no rice pudding is complete without it. Where do you stand on skin (as it were . . . )

Chocolate rice pudding

More puddings. Not having a terribly sweet tooth I do struggle with them but I found this recipe in the Guardian last Saturday and thought that it looked a great way to make rice pudding.

According to its creator, Dan Lepard, you bring the milk and rice to the boil then take it off the heat, put a lid on the pan and let it rest for an hour then it should only take 15 minutes to cook. But mine took a full hour, like it normally does.

I also varied the recipe by replacing the cocoa with 25g of milk chocolate I had left over from making an icing the other day (yes, I'm that disinterested in chocolate!). When I first started to stir it in it looked fabulous - with great chocolatey streaks running through it - then it went the rather unattractive pinky brown colour as shown above.

It was also a bit sweet even though I'd reduced the sugar from 75g to 40g so I stirred in a tablespoon of cocoa powder and sifted a little more over the top with a tea strainer which made it look quite pretty. I think if you put some of those luscious Polish cherries at the bottom of the dish it would be even nicer.

Actually I think the best rice pudding of all is just rice, milk and sugar with a few lightly crushed cardamom pods added to the milk. It turns out like one of those exotic rice puddings you sometimes find in Indian restaurants. Now there's a thought - maybe add cardamom to the chocolate rice. That does sound good . . .

Queen of Puddings

One of the stranger things about writing a cookbook is having to test recipes at odd times of day or year. Like making Christmas pudding in July. (Well, odd for us in the UK anyway. Obviously not for Australians though they have to road test barbecue recipes in the middle of winter)

So it was at six o'clock on a Tuesday evening - not a time of the week I think of eating puddings, let alone making them - that I found myself baking this traditional British recipe Queen of Puddings. Based on breadcrumbs, eggs and jam it's thriftiness personified but unexpectedly airy and delicious. I thought it might be improved by adding a few frozen berries to the jam. (From the frozen food cabinet in Tesco. Great bargain) It is but jam will do just fine.

Serves 4

400ml whole milk
Finely grated rind of 1 small unwaxed lemon
15g butter
25g caster sugar
80g fresh breadcrumbs
2 large egg yolks
3 tbsp raspberry jam
125g fresh or frozen raspberries or mixed small berries
For the meringue
2 large egg whites
110g caster sugar

You will need a lightly greased small to medium-sized shallow oven-proof dish about 850ml (1 1/2 pints) in capacity

Pour the milk in a saucepan, add the lemon rind and stir then place over a low heat until the milk is hot but not boiling. Add the butter and caster sugar and leave a couple of minutes until melted then strain the milk over the breadcrumbs. Stir and leave for 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas 3. Beat the soaked breadcrumbs then beat in the egg yolks and tip the mixture into the greased pie dish. Place the dish in a roasting tin of water and bake for about 45 minutes until the top is lightly set. Take out of the oven. Put the jam in a small saucepan with the frozen fruit, warm through and spread gently over the pudding without breaking the surface. Whip the egg whites until stiff then whisk in half the sugar until the mixture is thick and shiny. Fold in the remaining sugar and spread evenly over the pudding. Put the pudding back in the oven and cook for a further 15-20 minutes until the meringue is golden brown. Serve straightaway.

A tip. Look out for old fashioned Pyrex dishes in charity shops. They’re perfect for cooking a dish like this.

A warning. This technique creates a soft meringue that is only part-cooked and may therefore not be suitable for pregnant friends or grannies