Rice pudding

Rice pudding seems to be one of those desserts you either love or hate. This delicious version is hard not to like, with plenty of amazing flavours coming together in one gorgeous dish. Unlike the English version, this rice pudding has those classic Middle Eastern flavours of rosewater, cardamom and vanilla. Keeping with tradition, you can eat it warm or cool sprinkled with a few crunchy nuts for the perfect finish with every bite.

Ingredients

• 650ml full fat milk
• 200ml double cream
• 2 teaspoon rosewater
• 4 green cardamom pods, crushed, seeds ground with a pestle and mortar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod
• 2 tablespoon clear honey, plus extra for drizzling
• 200g pudding rice
• 50g unsalted butter
• Grated rind of 1 lime

To serve

• 50g flaked almonds, toasted
• 50g chopped shelled pistachio nuts
• Handful of dried edible rose petals

Method

1. Set a large saucepan over a medium-low heat, pour in the milk, cream, rosewater, ground cardamom seeds, vanilla paste or seeds and the honey and stir well until the vanilla paste has dissolved into the liquid evenly. Without allowing the contents to boil, heat up the liquid, then increase the heat to medium and add the rice.

2. Once the rice is in,you will need to stir the mixture continuously for about 20 minutes or so to draw out the starch, which will enrich the dish. Should the rice dry out
a little during the cooking process, add a little more milk.

3. Once the rice is cooked, add the butter and stir well until it melts. Turn off the heat and stir in the lime rind, to give the dish a burst of freshness.

4. In the Middle East, although we do occasionally eat rice puddings hot, we love to eat them chilled. So decant the pudding either into a large serving dish or as individual portions, decorate generously with the almonds and pistachios, scatter over a few dried rose petals and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Drizzle over a little clear honey just before serving.

This recipe is from Persiana, available now from Hachette Australia. Click here to learn more.