my bowl has a handle for better transportation – awesome right?!

One of the amazing things about learning to cook is discovering you can recreate all your childhood favourites.

And not only that – you can make them better.

Many moons ago when I was young, my ultimate comfort food was rice pudding. In fact, my mother used it as a barometer to measure how sick I was.

Two bowls was your average cold/flu, four bowls and I was running a high fever…six bowls and..well, suffice to say had I reached six bowls, you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog today.

Now that I’m grown, it’s a pleasure to rediscover rice pudding and tweak it to my very picky tastebuds. This recipe has no sugar and egg yolks added at the final stage to give it a custardy feel. It’s rich without being overpowering and thick enough that a little goes a long way.

I’ve also gone a bit crazy and gleefully added some rich spiced peach jam. I regret nothing!

Rice Pudding (serves two)

• 1/2 cup short grain white rice (this comes in many disguises, I used something labelled ‘sushi’ rice which was essentially Japanese short grain, there’s also ‘pudding rice’ out there. Whatever it says on the label, just make sure it’s short grain)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus an extra tbsp
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp butter
• 3 bay leafs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 egg yolks, beaten

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir until it is coated. Pour in the milk and cream, add bay leaves.
2. Let the mixture come to a boil, turn down the heat to its lowest setting and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Stir frequently to ensure it doesn’t stick.
3. While it is cooking whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla essence.
4. When the rice is cooked, remove from heat and carefully fish out the bay leaves and discard.
5. Gradually stir in the egg yolks and vanilla. Be sure to add a little at a time and stir constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs.
6. Pour in that extra tbsp of cream and serve…with peach jam.
   

   pre-jamming

Spiced Peach Jam (makes around 1 cup)

• 1 peach, finely diced
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Put all the above in a pot and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes until the peach breaks down to a jam consistency. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.
   

   all jammed up and nowhere to go…except my belly

   Like this? You might also like:

• Apple & Raspberry Crumble (GF) & Vanilla Custard
• Spiced Berry Crumble

This post was featured on the Healthy Home Economist.