Day 129: Caramel rice pudding

As we say in Donegal, it was a ‘wile’ mess. Milk over-boiled all over the cooker, dripping onto the floor, running down each side of the work top. There I was, flat out trying to salvage my recipe and clean up the wile mess. In fairness, I had literally stepped out of the kitchen for two minutes to say hello to Dear Sister No.2 and my new brother-in-law who had called round before setting off on honeymoon tomorrow. Oh, and here’s a picture of the happy couple and the Dear Sisters – just in case you’re interested. And on a food related matter, the bride even baked her own wedding cake so I must also get a pic of it up on the blog when I get one.

The happy couple: Lisa and Seamus

 

The Dear Sisters: Me, Eileen, Lisa, Claire



Anyway, during those two minutes when I had temporarily evacuated the kitchen, that’s when things started to get really messy in the kitchen. However, I did manage to save the recipe which was Caramel rice pudding. Dear Husband (the poor soul) only managed to eat half of his steak dinner at Dear Sister’s wedding on Saturday because, by that time, the two babies were tired so he did something which was extremely difficult for him to do and abandoned the dinner. He said it was a fine steak too. Anyway, he got the beautiful babies bundled into the car and took them home. I think he ended up having tea and toast for his supper then. So, not to be hard done by, he asked I would make him a steak dinner this evening. I know. I have him spoiled. That’s why I decided on a dessert recipe for this evening then as part of the Challenge. Now, although Dear Mother would be fond of making puddings, this was something I had absolutely never made before so here’s how I made it…

I started off my melting butter in a large saucepan and, once it foamed up, I added in caster sugar and stirred continually until it was a dark caramel colour. Next, I whisked in milk, actually a lot of milk – 1.2 litres of Donegal Creameries’ finest. Then, I added in pudding rice, a vanilla pod and some salt. Once it came up to an almost boil, I let it simmer for 35 minutes and stirred occasionally. I served it up with toasted chopped hazelnuts.

The verdict…

Dear Husband gave it 6 marks out of 10 and, from me, 6 marks also. It was a very good recipe and although neither of us would eat pudding too often, we were both impressed with this one. As I mentioned, Dear Mother would occasionally make homemade rice pudding so it was great to have another variation of the dish. I must admit that I love hazelnuts so their inclusion really helped the scoring.

Overall, it was an extremely easy recipe to make but you really do need to stir it often whilst it is simmering; otherwise, you will (a) make a wile mess of the cooker and/or (b) the rice will stick to the bottom and burn. It took a fair bit of time but I don’t think any longer than other desserts and it needs a fair bit of attention. That said, will I make it again? Definitely. I’ll just try not to leave a path of destruction in my wake…