Coconut Rice with Vanilla Honey

The other day when I was talking about cookbooks I mentioned the Donna Hay Seasons book, and the delicious (and easy!) coconut rice pudding recipe. The recipe is supposed to be accompanied by stone fruit, but though I can vouch for the fact that it is delicious with a topping of nectarine, since it's winter nectarines aren't too thick on the ground and this time we just went with the pudding part and the vanilla honey - which is pretty good on it's own anyway (it just doesn't look as pretty).

There are basically two steps - boil the rice and water for 10 minutes, then add everything else and simmer for another few minutes.

Oh, and pop some honey and vanilla in another saucepan for a couple of minutes until it's runny and delicious. Beats most other rice puddings I've tried - not only do you not have to stir, it takes hardly any time at all!

This recipe makes a lot of pudding - I'd say it easily serves 8 (Mr Cake went back for seconds, thirds and fourths, and there's still lots leftover!) so feel free to cut the quantities in half or even quarter if you don't want that much. Or just put it in the fridge for tomorrow - it also tastes good cold, or reheated in the microwave.

Coconut Rice with Vanilla Honey (from Seasons, by Donna Hay)
Ingredients
2 cups/400g arborio rice
1.5 litres/6 cups water
2 cups/500ml coconut milk (since a can is less than this I usually just add extra water and it still tastes great)
1/2 cup/110g caster sugar
2/3 cup/240g honey
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped, or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or 1 tsp of vanilla essence
nectarines and peaches to top with (optional)

Place the rice and water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes or until almost all the water has been absorbed. Add the coconut milk and sugar and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook for a further 5-8 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.

Place the honey and vanilla pod/seeds/paste/essence into another saucepan and cook over low heat for 3 minutes. If using a vanilla pod remove. Serve rice topped with vanilla honey and fruit (if desired).