Lazy food edition | Chilled rice pudding with berry compote

I’m back you fools and to celebrate let me share a story from my childhood.

When I was in elementary school, our teacher used to teach us different ‘life hacks’ based on science – she said. One of the most memorable things she ever said was that it’s better to drink a hot drink (hot tea) when it’s hot outside, if you want to cool down. I don’t want to say that this is bullshit, but it never quite worked for me. And frankly, you cannot convince me that having a hot drink will make you feel better than having some ice cream in a flaming hot day.

I’d normally make some chilled treat or other but as you might have noticed, the fact that I have so much revision cough learning cough to do now means I cannot lose too much precious time even with eating. And because I truly, deeply believe at this point of frantic revision that I don’t need sleep and/or that you can live on coffee, I have found myself at a culinary block which I have resorted to solving with one of my favourite Italian ‘things’: covfefe. I am sure that you’ve had a covfefe at least a couple times but you might not be familiar with this particular name.

The covfefe is going to solve your enormous need for coffee and your cravings for sweets and you will not feel particularly guilty for having a break as this one has, in my opinion, very few chances of turning into another let’s-watch-all-of-Orange-is-the-new-black-in-one-go incident. Basically, you just make a nice-healthy-huge cup of coffee and while it is still hot, you take spoons of ice cream and you eat them at the same time with the coffee. I have friends who just put ice cream in the coffee and then eat it, but I think that’s disgusting. The special taste of covfefe comes exactly from the combination of very cold ice cream and hot coffee consumed at the same time – just before the ice cream melts into your mouth, taking care of any potential minor burns.

And if you want to feel fancy – fancier than downing an ice cream tube – and if you have enough time now and you’ve finished your exams, or if you want to procrastinate with cooking if you still have work to do, here I am, presenting you with the most impressive rice pudding you can imagine!... Though the truth is I’ve been way too lazy to cook anything more complex than this over the past month. Instead I’ve succumbed to being a lazy-ass student who uses restaurants and deliveries as their main sources of nutrition.

Regardless, my rice pudding brings all the boys to the yard. For real it’s the shit.

Ingredients

For the pudding

• 1.5l semi-skimmed milk
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds only
• 250g pudding rice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 200 ml double cream For the compote
• 700g mixed berries
• 100g caster sugar
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds only
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp cornflour Place the milk and the vanilla seeds in a pan over medium heat. While stirring constantly, add the rice and simmer for 25 minutes or until it is tender – yes, this is the best way to work those flabby arms since you haven’t gone to the gym once in the past month. Depending on the density of the mixture, you might need to add some extra milk. And muscle.

Add the brown sugar and keep stirring. Remove from the heat and, after it cools a bit, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whip the double cream and mix it with the cooled pudding. Refrigerate for another hour (at least).

For the compote, place 200mL of water and all the ingredients (except the cornflour) into a pan and bring to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cornflour with 2 tbsp of cold water (it should have the consistency of a paste). Slowly add the paste to the berry compote and keep stirring over low heat until it thickens. Stir for 2-5 more minutes and then remove from the heat.

Serve the cold rice pudding in some fancy bowls or glasses and top with fruit compote. It should be enough for 4-6 servings, but I know you will eat it all in one go when you’ve got dem cravings only some mushy white ricey goodness can satisfy. I won’t mention sharing it with others. That’s just blasphemous.

P.S. I missed you, but my lovely exams have been keeping me busy :)