Caramelised Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding

Caramelised Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding. This is the first time I’ve made this caramelised pineapple with coconut rice pudding. My daughter has been eating rice pudding at her nursery recently and she mentioned it a few times so I thought I’d have a go at making rice pudding from scratch.

Almost everyone loves rice pudding and I like it so much I decided to illustrate this recipe as well as cook it. The recipe I used for the illustration is a variation of a recipe I learnt while working in a restaurant kitchen (I forget which one) but for the actual dish I cooked I changed a few ingredients as I found some improvements could be made. So you’ll see the illustration recipe shows one thing but the real food is a little different. Both are really delicious though.

I’ve made recipe pudding plenty of times in my life but like most people I’ve always used milk to make rice pudding. Today I decided to use coconut milk for a different taste. You can choose whether to use milk for this recipe or coconut milk as I used. You can even go half and half but this is entirely up to you.

I’ve also made caramelised pineapple many times before but this is the first I’ve combined these two delicious desserts together and I have to say it’s delicious! The other reason I used coconut milk in this recipe is because I think the coconut flavour goes really well with all the spices and caramelised pineapple. It makes this dessert taste very “tropical”!

If you are vegan then you can use only coconut milk in this recipe and you can also replace the butter with vegan butter. I used salted Kerrygold butter in this recipe, I think bar deli shop/real farmhouse butter, Kerrygold is the most delicious butter available commonly here. I’m not a huge sweet food fan so I added a little bit of salt to balance out the sweetness. In fact whenever I bake I nearly always add a little salt.

For the rice, I used Thai fragrant rice for this recipe. It cooks really quickly and is delicious. This is a dish to warm your heart and tummy. I hope you like this delicious and easy to make Caramelised Pineapple with Coconut Rice Pudding.

For the rice, I used Thai fragrant rice in this recipe. It cook really quickly and taste delicious. This is a dish to warm your heart and tummy. I hope you like this delicious and easy dessert recipe.

caramelised pineapple cococnut rice pudding
 

Caramelised Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding

Course Dessert
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Ingredients for Caramelised Pineapple

  • 80 g dark brown or demerara sugar
  • 1 small pineapple peeled and sliced thick
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 60 g butter
  • 150 ml water

Ingredients for Coconut Rice Pudding

  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 400 ml semi skimmed milk
  • 125 g long grain rice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 150 g caster sugar or demerara sugar
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions

Procedures for Caramelised Pineapple

  1. Add sugar, pineapple, cinnamon and star anise into a large frying pan

  2. Cook at medium-low heat until the sugar has melted. 

  3. Add butter into step 2 and cook until the butter has melted then add water and bring to a boil. Once it has started to boil simmer until the syrup is thick and ready to serve.

Procedures for Coconut Rice Pudding

  1. Add coconut milk, milk, rice, sugar and salt into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil then turn the stove to medium-low heat and cook for 10 minutes, stir often. 

  2. Pour it into a greased baking dish and sprinkle the nutmeg on top. 

  3. Cover it with tin foil and bake at 160c for 1 hour, stir it and checking it often. Cook until the rice is tender. 

  4. Serve with caramelised pineapple, pomegranate and pistachio. 

caramelised rice pudding illustration

Eight Treasure Rice Pudding Chinese new year dish

Eight Treasure Rice Pudding Chinese new year dish

eight treasure rice pudding

Eight Treasures Rice Pudding is a traditional Chinese new year pudding. Eight treasures topping is made up with eight different kind of dried fruits, raisin and sweets. You can choose any ingredients which are easy for you to buy. Of course, you don’t have to use “eight” different toppings but the number of toppings you use is really down to personal preference.

I used five different kinds of toppings today because I only a small rice pudding for Chris and I. If I were to use eight different kinds of toppings for a rice pudding this size it would look a bit of a mess

The number eight is a magic number for Chinese people. In Chinese the number eight sounds like another Chinese word “”. in Chinese means rich and I believe everybody likes being rich.  So, eight is a lucky number. Also, this dessert is really colourful and pretty so Chinese people love to have this dessert in Chinese New Year.

China has so many different provinces and different provinces also have different traditions. Whether you go to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Malaysia, although we all celebrate Chinese New Year the customs are different. Sometimes it’s really hard to say which Chinese dish is a typical Chinese New Year dish but I always say as long as the dish is petty, colourful and has a lucky or pretty name then it’s a good Chinese New Year dish.

Here is recipe for this eight treasures rice pudding. I wish all of you have a great Chinese new year and I hope you will give my recipe a go and make eight treasures rice pudding for your friends and family. Trust me, they’ll love it.

Credit: All photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com

 

Eight Treasure Rice Pudding Chinese new year dish

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 3 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 handful sugar glazed cherries
  • 1 handful black raisins
  • 1 handful yellow raisins
  • 1 handful sugar lotus seeds available in Chinese supermarkets
  • 1 dried apricot
  • 2 cups round glutinous rice
  • 100 g red bean paste available in Chinese supermarkets

Seasonings

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients for sugar syrup

  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tbsp potato starch water (1/2 tsp potato starch with 1 tbsp water, mix evenly)
  • 2 drops rose or any kind of flower essence **

Instructions

  1. Soak round glutinous rice in cold water for 1 hour at least. Cook it in a rice cooker or steamer. Mix the cooked rice with sunflower oil and salt when it’s still hot.
  2. Brush some oil on a medium size bowl and cut the sugar glazed cherry in half. Place the dried fruits and sugar glazed cherries as shown in the photos.
  3. Put half of the cooked glutinous rice in the bowl and press down a little bit then put 100g red bean paste in the middle.
  4. Use a little bit of glutinous rice to cover the red bean paste and place the sugar lotus seeds and sugar glazed cherries around the bowl.
  5. Put all of the glutinous rice in the bowl and press down. Steam for 30 minutes.
  6. Use a small pot to boil all the ingredients for the sugar syrup. Stir in potato starch water to thicken the syrup.
  7. Flip the rice pudding on a plate and brush sugar syrup on top. Ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

** In some traditional eight treasures rice pudding recipes, it says use “sweet-scented osmanthus sauce” but it’s very difficult to get in UK so I use rose essence to replace it.