Caramelized Rice Pudding with Honeyed Figs

Rice pudding is a great favourite; it has been eaten since the time of the Moors who introduced rice to Spain and is still spiced with a little cinnamon to this day. In mediaeval times the rice was cooked in almond milk but nowadays it’s prepared with cow’s milk instead. Asturias, the dairy of Spain, is real rice pudding country, and when I ate this for the first time with voluptuous figs, just bursting their skins, and local heather honey, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.