Overview:
By: Antonia
Meal Type: Accompaniment, Dessert
Cook time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes
Servings: 8
This classic ‘nursery’ pudding is so comforting and is easy to make. It is an ideal pudding to make in your Aga range cooker.
After a short blast in the roasting oven, you move it into the simmering oven and can ‘forget’ about it for several hours whilst you prepare the main course/do the school run/put your feet up! I like to leave the vanilla pod in the pudding as it cooks for extra flavour, but do remember to remove it before serving.
Ingredients:
- 120g short grain/pudding rice
- 50g sugar
- 1.2 litres full cream milk
- 1 vanilla pod
- Whole nutmeg
- 10g butter, plus extra for greasing the dish
You may need...
- The best frying pan that you will ever use, - use it as a dish! So easy to clean!
- An oven shelf
- A measuring jug
- Scales
- A fine grater
Method:
- Generously butter the base and sides of a large pie or baking dish. Pour the rice, sugar and milk into the dish.
- Split the vanilla pod with a knife and scrape out the seeds. Add to the rice mixture and gently mix everything together, spreading the vanilla seeds throughout the milk. Add the split vanilla pod to the dish, pushing it underneath the milk. Grate a fine layer of nutmeg over the top and dot with small pieces of butter.
- Slide the dish carefully onto a shelf on the bottom runners in the roasting oven and cook for 35 minutes. A brown skin should have formed and the milk will be bubbling. Move carefully to the centre of the simmering oven for approximately 2 ½ hours*.
- Remove from simmering oven and serve with your accompaniment of choice (see below)!
Tip top toppings! -
This rice pudding is delicious as it is but a dollop of your favourite jam is always a welcome addition. Raspberry jam for me please!
Other ideas for toppings:
- Fresh fruit - apples, sliced and caramelised in spices, butter and sugar
- Apple and blackberry compote
- Maple syrup, pears and pecan nuts
- Lemon curd
- Raisins soaked overnight in rum or Pedro Ximenez sherry
You can also add flavours other than vanilla and nutmeg to the rice pudding whilst it is baking – those rum or sherry-soaked raisins would make a very special dessert. A little lemon zest is good or try cinnamon in place of the nutmeg. Chocolate chips are an indulgent option for the chocoholic!
Antonia's tips for cooking this in your Aga range cooker -
Antonia likes her rice pudding to be quite firm with a wobbly, rather than runny consistency. If you like it to be more runny, check after 2 hours in the simmering oven.
You can cook most rice dishes in the simmering oven, using the absorption method. For perfect long-grain rice, use twice the volume of liquid to rice, bring to the boil on the boiling plate and then place a lid firmly on the saucepan and finish cooking on the floor of the simmering oven.
This nourishing recipe has been scribed and tested by community member Antonia, who is a hard working mum with two boys. Her recipes are trialed in her much loved Aga range cooker and devoured by her family, allowing Antonia to provide accurate tips and advice on how to make the dishes a success! Go check her work out! She is a country girl, happily surrounded by an excitable Lab, her dear husband, two boys and the Cotswolds.
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