Rice pudding with pears, dulce de leche and almond crumbs

tam West

I have included a recipe for dulce de leche, the caramelised condensed milk Argentinians seem addicted to. I made it and although it needed constant attention for the 2 hours of cooking, it wasn’t difficult and I liked the result. Highlander brand condensed milk does a caramel version in a tin and this is a pretty good, not to mention inexpensive, approximation of dulce de leche. This makes boiling a can of condensed milk until caramelised a bit superfluous. Otherwise you can buy an imported brand of dulce de leche which will be more expensive.

Rice pudding

1 Ltr	Milk, full cream
500 ml	Cream
1 pinch	Salt
1	Cinnamon stick
1	Lemon, zested
½ cup	Sugar
½ cup	Short grain rice (Main)

Almond crumbs

75 g	Butter
¼ cup	Sugar
½ cup	Flour
½ cup	Sliced almonds (Main)

Pears and dulce de leche

3 large	Pears, peeled, quartered and cored (Main)
4 Tbsp	Caster sugar
500 ml	Water
1 Tbsp	Lemon juice
1 Ltr	Milk, full cream (Main)
300 g	Caster sugar
1 pinch	Baking soda
1 tsp	Pure vanilla extract

Directions

Rice pudding

1. Put everything, but only half the cream, into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 25-30 minutes, stirring frequently until the rice is tender and the mixture has thickened and is creamy.
2. Remove from the heat, discard the cinnamon stick and allow to cool, then chill.
3. Whip the remainder of the cream and reserve.

Almond crumbs

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Put the butter, sugar and flour into a food processor and process well to form a mixture with a gravel-like texture. Alternatively, place the butter, sugar and flour in a bowl and rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips.
3. Place in a bowl and stir in the sliced almonds.
4. Sprinkle the mixture on to the tray in a thin layer. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, cool and break up any big lumps. Reserve.

Pears

1. Put pears, 4 tablespoons caster sugar, water and tablespoon lemon juice into a saucepan over moderate heat. Bring to the boil and simmer 30 minutes or until the liquid is syrupy and the pears tender.

Dulce de leche

1. Put milk, 300g caster sugar, baking soda and vanilla extract into a heavy-based saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Turn the heat down so the mixture is just simmering and simmer 2 hours or until thick, shiny and dark golden brown in colour. You will need to lower the temperature as the mixture reduces and gets thicker.
2. Remove from the heat and cool. This makes about 1½ cups and it will keep covered in the fridge for a month.

To serve

Serve the chilled rice pudding with some pears, a dollop of dulce de leche (or Highlander's caramel condensed milk), a sprinkling of the almond crumbs and some whipped cream.

Check out more of Ray's recipes from Argentina

• Silverbeet and prawn fritters with chimichurri
• Skirt steak with creole sauce, fried potatoes and salad