Nan’s Rice Pudding
Growing up I spent a lot of time cooking with my Nan and one of my favourites was Nan’s rice pudding. I do not think there is a better comfort food pudding, creamy, unctuous moreish, the smell of the nutmeg as it cooks and then the skin off the top. This is my Nan’s recipe as best I can remember it after all its been a long time since I cooked with my Nan. It has to be full-fat milk and double cream. I used Jersey gold top in this version of my Nan’s rice pudding.
Ingredients
- 40g butter
- 100g pudding rice
- 75g caster sugar
- 1-litre full-fat milk
- 150ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or ½ vanilla pod, split lengthways
- pinch salt
- plenty freshly grated nutmeg
Method
- Preheat the oven to 140C/285F/Gas 1.
- Melt the butter in a heavy-based casserole dish over medium heat. Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Continue stirring until the rice swells and becomes sticky with sugar.
- Pour in the milk and keep stirring until no lumps remain. Add the cream and vanilla and bring the mixture to a simmer. Once this is reached, give the mixture a final stir and grate at least a third of a nutmeg over the surface. Bake for 1-1½ hours and cover with foil if the surfaces browns too quickly.
- Once there is a thin, tarpaulin-like skin on the surface, and the pudding only just wobbles in the centre, it is ready. Serve at room temperature.
I see no need to mess with a classic dish by adding fruit etc, just have it as it is and let it bring back those childhood memories, As I was writing this sat at the kitchen table that nutmeg aroma filled the air and took me back to my Nan’s house as a child.
