Rice Pudding in the Microwave

[Naillig]

Does anyone have a basic recipe for rice pudding cooked in a microwave cooker? My husband hates washing saucepans that have been used to cook any kind of milk pudding and I usually decide pretty much at the last minute what to cook for dessert, so like something quick-cooking. I have tried cooking pudding rice in the microwave recently, but it ended up taking nearly as much time as the hob method and the bowl I cooked it in ended up almost as messy and difficult to wash as a saucepan would have. I have used cooked rice in the past to make rice pudding, but at the moment I have some pudding rice needing to be used up.

Also, what's a good way of thickening those small tubs of rice pudding that are rather runny?

Gillian

 

[Morning Glory]

I have cooked rice pudding in the microwave but will need to look up how I did it. I'll see if I have some notes and get back.

As for the tubs, I don't think there is much you could do except perhaps add half a tsp of cornflour mixed in a little water or milk and stir through before heating the tub.

 

[Morning Glory]

OK - I eventually found my notes on this. The problem is that the milk boils over in the microwave so you need to use a rather large bowl. Also, it takes nearly as long as on the hob. Apparently, I followed a BBC recipe which suggested 5 minutes on high, rest for a minute and stir then another five minutes - and my notes say I ended up with milk everywhere and uncooked rice.

The result of experiments was that the only thing that worked was 10 minutes on defrost setting with half the milk required. Then stir and add rest of milk and cook another 10 minutes on defrost. I think I never wrote it up because it was really no easier than cooking on the hob. And - don't get me wrong, I am a fan of using microwaves!

 

[rascal]

We have two enamel dishes we use for rice and macaroni in the oven. Hmmm I need to make this again, it's winter here as well.
That would eliminate the pot thingy?

 

[Naillig]

Morning Glory, the one advantage of the microwave over the saucepan method is, you don't have a messy saucepan to clean, and provided you use a big enough bowl, you don't have a particularly messy bowl to clean either.

Rascal, as I said in my original post, dessert here is a last minute decision, so I'm not really thinking about it early enough to use the oven.
Maybe some day I will.

Here are a couple of questions: I found a recipe for rice pudding in a microwave cookery book. Two of the ingredients listed are evaporated milk and water. Would this be a normal combination in a recipe for rice pudding? If I used fresh milk instead of evaporated, would I still need to add water?

 

[TastyReuben]

I normally use milk or half-and-half, so I don't thin that with water. I've never used evaporated milk for rice pudding (or hardly anything else, for that matter), so I checked online, and several recipes that called for evaporated milk also called for water.

You know, you could just cook up a big tub of rice, depending on how often you like to eat it, and then make rice pudding from that. We love rice pudding and have it frequently, and that's what I do. I've never really had much of a problem with milky pans, either. I cook my rice in a rice cooker, and make the pudding later in a stainless steel saucepan. Works a treat (though I do give the pan a rinse as soon as I portion out the pudding, I don't leave it sit).

 

[Naillig]

I've used your method quite often and it does work well. The thing is, I have a lot of pudding rice which I was hoping to use up rather than just throw it out.

 

[Morning Glory]

Morning Glory, the one advantage of the microwave over the saucepan method is, you don't have a messy saucepan to clean, and provided you use a big enough bowl, you don't have a particularly messy bowl to clean either.

Rascal, as I said in my original post, dessert here is a last minute decision, so I'm not really thinking about it early enough to use the oven.
Maybe some day I will.

Here are a couple of questions: I found a recipe for rice pudding in a microwave cookery book. Two of the ingredients listed are evaporated milk and water. Would this be a normal combination in a recipe for rice pudding? If I used fresh milk instead of evaporated, would I still need to add water?

You won't need to add water if you use fresh milk. Evaporated milk is what it says on the tin - evaporated. In other words water has been boiled off and it is thicker so you need to replace some of the water for the rice to cook. Evaporated milk will give you a creamier taste than fresh milk. My mum used to use it to make rice pudding cooked in the oven back in the 1950's!

 

[Naillig]

You won't need to add water if you use fresh milk. Evaporated milk is what it says on the tin - evaporated. In other words water has been boiled off and it is thicker so you need to replace some of the water for the rice to cook. Evaporated milk will give you a creamier taste than fresh milk. My mum used to use it to make rice pudding cooked in the oven back in the 1950's!

Many thanks for confirming what I thought, Morning Glory. I had a look at the tins of evaporated milk in a supermarket I was in today an noticed that there was a lot more sugar in them than I would be happy with eating, so I'll be substituting ordinary milk for the evaporated milk and water.