← Nouns Cooking · French

Ingredients

• 120 g short-grain pudding rice or arborio
• 1 l whole milk
• 80 g Sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 strip of orange or lemon zest (optional)
• 100 ml double cream (optional)

Method

1. Put the rice in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 min. Drain and rinse; this keeps the pudding light rather than gluey.
2. Return the rice to the pan with the milk, vanilla pod and its scraped seeds, the salt and the zest, if using. Bring just to a simmer over medium heat.
3. Turn the heat right down and cook at the gentlest simmer, uncovered, for 35–45 min, stirring often and scraping the bottom, until the rice is very tender and the milk is thick and creamy.
4. Stir in the sugar until dissolved and remove the vanilla pod and zest. The pudding thickens as it cools, so take it off the heat while it still looks a little loose.
5. Serve warm, or cool and chill; stir in the cream before serving if it has set firm. Lovely with caramel sauce, jam or poached fruit.

Tips

• Adding the sugar at the end lets the rice soften fully and stops the milk catching on the bottom.
• Cool leftovers quickly and keep them in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

David Lebovitz RecipeTin Eats David Lebovitz