Chilled Cardamom Rice Pudding with Honey Apricots

A cooling and indulgent summer pudding which is light enough for warmer weather but still feels like a treat.

The creamy rice pudding is lifted by the fragrant cardamom and the fresh honeyed apricots. Pistachio nuts and rose petals give a little bit of final luxury.

Although this takes a bit of time to prepare and chill, you can make it in advance and it will keep in separate bowls for up to 3 days in the fridge. Just assemble in bowls when you are ready to serve it.

Method

Serves 4 - 6

Prep time: 5 mins Cooking time: 45 mins plus cooling and chilling time

Put the rice, milk and sugar into a saucepan. Take the seeds out of the cardamom pods and grind them to a powder in a pestle and mortar. Add the cardamom to the saucepan.

Heat the mixture gently until it comes to the boil, being careful not to let it boil over. Once it is up to temperature, gently simmer for 45 minutes. Stir every so often to make sure the rice hasn’t stuck to the bottom, especially at the beginning and towards the end of the cooking time.

When it is ready, remove the rice pudding from the heat and stir in the cream. Pour the rice pudding into a heatproof bowl and push cling film down over the rice pudding so it sits on the top. This will stop a skin forming while it cools.

Let the rice pudding cool and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile, halve the apricots and remove the stones. Put the honey and water in a pan and gently bring up the heat until the honey has dissolved. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the pan. Add the apricots to the pan and bring it up to a gentle simmer.

Simmer for 5 - 10 minutes until the apricots are just softened. Use a slotted spoon to lift them out of the pan and into a bowl to cool. Raise the heat under the honey and water to reduce it by half to create a syrup. Make sure you keep an eye on it as it easily boils over if it gets too hot.

When the syrup is ready, pour it through a sieve into a bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice through the sieve into the syrup and stir. Leave to cool and then pour over the apricots. Chill for 2 hours.

To serve, spoon the rice pudding into little glasses or small bowls. Slice a couple of apricots halves and place on top. Sprinkle over a few chopped pistachio nuts and some rose petals.

Ingredients

Apricots

250g fresh apricots

500ml water

100g raw honey

1 vanilla bean pod

Juice half a lemon

Rice Pudding

100g pudding rice

1 litre whole milk

90g caster sugar

4 cardamom pods (seeds)

50ml double cream

Topping

20g pistachio nuts chopped

2 tsp rose petals (optional)