Rice puddings with caramel gala apples

Man, getting sick really gets you behind.

When you are rolled up into a ball, in a dark room, with no lights or sound, and in horrible pain, time drags it's feet as though they were made of gold bullions. Once you have recovered, it melts them down and goes gallivanting past you like a wild horse released, making it that much more difficult to catch up on everything you haven't done whilst incapacitated (which most of the time, also includes eating).

The obligatory mountains of cloth - patterned, solid, and stained, was the first task to be dealt with. Along followed streaky cupboards, littered bench tops, and of course the double sinks filled with all sorts of charcoaled pans and dishwasher queues.

Once the mess was tidied and the laundry loads finished, a trip to the butcher, grocer and supermarket entailed resulting in an exhausted wife. It was all well and good as I knew that the next day I would plan to do absolutely nothing that I considered arduous.

Come late afternoon with its Spring shower, I felt like making a 'cup' dessert that I could slowly eat with a teaspoon over the space of say, 40mins. I had an accidental extra packet of carnaroli rice and so figured a rice pudding would be in order. Two gala apples were looking neglected amongst the larger fruits so I thought I'd save them as well.



ease: 4/5.
prep time: 5mins.
cooking time: 1 hour & 20mins - my rice took ages to reduce
total: 1 hour & 40mins (includes 15mins chilling time).

taste: 2.5/5. As soon as I added the sharp apple cider vinegar I knew I wasn't going to like it. I hoped the apple cider vinegar would dissipate as it cooked but it didn't, coupled with the tangy lemon these apples were much too tart and acidic for me. One reviewer suggested Calvados in place of the vinegar, a much better choice I believe.
Unfortunately the rice didn't fare much better. It was quite sweet and had more of a grainy texture rather than a lusciously coated creaminess. Put together, this was a big let down for me.

would I make it again: No.

recipe: Rice puddings with caramel gala apples