Sweetening Rice

For every person put off the food of their childhood for life, there is another left with a deep need for regular fixes. Rice pudding seems a common bête noire, although the luckiest of us remember only succulent beds of creamy rice with a golden skin, flecked black and tasting richly of caramel.

From Greece to India, cold rice pudding is a popular and refreshing treat, made either in a saucepan and poured into individual serving bowls before chilling, or baked separately in the oven so that each helping has its own crust. The texture is much looser than the moulded French rice rings – sometimes just a sweet sauce with a few grains of rice lurking at the bottom.