Lemon Rice Pudding - 2 ways

Rice pudding is so comforting, especially on a cold, wet evening.  My mum was more inclined to make her own bread and butter pudding, but spoon the rice pudding out of a tin.  I guess it was an easy-peasy, quick way to feed her family of 6.  She made it go further by adding tinned peaches or pears to our bowls.  Each child had their own bowl with a particular colour, so there was no squawking about whose was whose.  Mine was blue, of course!

These days I make my own pudding, and add lots of lemon to it for a citrus twist.  Then the next day with the leftovers you can make another version of tangy rice pudding.  It is delicious when served warm out of the oven when first made, but it does tend to go a bit gluggy the next day.  You can re-heat it, but I think it is better if you fancy it up a bit.

So let's start with the original recipe for lemon rice pudding which comes from a Cuisine NZ magazine, based on a Jane Grigson recipe:

Serves 4-6

ingredients:

100g. short grain rice - I used Arborio
500mls. cream
500mls. milk
2 tbs butter
4 tbs caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Place all the ingredients except the lemon juice into a baking dish (mine is enamel, about 24cm x 28cm)
Give it a really good stir and put the dish into an oven heated to 150C
Bake for 1.5 hours, giving it a stir after each half hour
After the first half hour, you will swear it won't work, but after an hour, you can see the golden crust forming and the rice breaking down
Take out of the oven when the 1.5 hours is up
Now stir in the lemon juice
Serve with stewed or fresh fruit if you wish

ingredients 

into the baking dish

pour in the cream and milk 

give it a good stir and place in a 150C oven for 1.5 hours     

baked and golden 

pour in the lemon juice and stir      

ready for eating  

This is a lovely, creamy dessert and tastes best warm from the oven.  So here's where we head to dessert no. 2, using the leftovers, if there are any.  Mr P. and I had some for supper, and as there was about 2/3 left, I made this cold version the next day.  Obviously, the amounts of other ingredients will depend on how much you have left from the warm pudding.  But here's what I did.

ingredients:

leftover rice pudding
150mls cream, whipped into soft peaks
40g. toasted and chopped hazelnuts
6 glace cherries, chopped
zest of 1 orange
90g. pineapple pieces (yes, I happily confess to using tinned)
2 tbs orange juice
1/2 tsp natural orange essence
a few dashes of ground cinnamon

Method:

this is oh so easy.  Gently fold everything together, and you are done.  I suggest stirring a big spoonful of the cream into the rice first to loosen it, then add the rest of the cream and fold that in.

ingredients 

ready for folding in 

juicing the orange 

gently fold everything together

creamy and delicious