Browned butter and lime rice pudding
This is a grown-up twist on the humble rice pudding that involves toasting and grinding some of the rice and sprinkling it on top for added texture (it’s also a great topping for yoghurt or ice-cream, incidentally). If you don’t have pudding rice, use any rice you have to hand such as basmati or jasmine.
5 minutes
Prep
1 hour 10 minutes
Cook
6 people
Serving size
Ingredients
80g unsalted butter
180g pudding rice, plus 2 tbsp extra for roasting
¾ tsp flaked sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
500ml whole milk
230g condensed milk
2 limes – 1 finely zested, to get 1½ tsp, and juiced, to get 1 tbsp, the other cut into 6 wedges, to serve
1 tbsp demerara sugar, or light brown sugar
Method
1. Put the butter in a small saucepan on a medium-high heat and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, for seven to eight minutes, until it’s melted, nutty and deeply brown, then set aside.
2. Put the rice, half the browned butter, salt, cinnamon and 700ml water in a large, nonstick saute pan on a medium-high heat until it comes to a simmer. Turn down the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed and the rice is just cooked.
3. Add the whole milk, condensed milk and 250ml more water to the pot, and bring the mixture back to a simmer on a medium-high heat. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook gently, stirring from time to time, so the rice doesn’t catch, for 30 minutes, then stir in the lime juice.
4. Meanwhile, put the extra rice in a small frying pan on a medium-high heat, and toast, shaking the pan regularly, for five to seven minutes, until deeply browned and fragrant (you don’t want to burn it, but you do want to take it to the edge). Transfer to a spice grinder (or mortar), add the sugar and blitz (or grind) to a coarse powder (it needs some bite).
5. When the rice pudding is almost ready, warm the remaining brown butter on a medium heat. Transfer the rice to a large, shallow bowl and pour over the butter. Sprinkle over two tablespoons of toasted rice and all the lime zest, and serve with the remaining rice and lime wedges.