Cheats for a quick rice pudding?

[grendel]

I usually make it in the oven and leave it for an hour and a half, but for school DD needs to make one in half an hour or less. She tried following a recipe where you stir it in a pan on the hob - it tasted bloody brilliant but took very nearly an hour for the rice to cook which is just waaaay too long for her assignment.

Does anyone regularly make rice pudding on the hob? How long does it take you and do you have any tips for speeding it up?

You don't have a pressure cooker do you? That's the only way I can think of speeding it up. It's not generally a fast recipe.

How about soaking the rice in hot milk the night before? Next day reheat it in a microwave with a little more milk and then use the half hour to bake it and get some colour on the top? I don't know if it would work but most grains swell up on contact with hot liquids.

We don't have a pressure cooker unfortunately, and I'm not sure DD could use it in her catering assignment even if we had one.

Interesting idea about pre-soaking the rice. I'll have to give that a try.

Thanks for the suggestions.

My mum used to make a cardamom scented pudding with cream, coconut milk, sugar, cardamom, cloves, a cinnamon stick, lemon zest, vanilla and rice vermicelli. The rice vermicelli takes hardly any time to cook. You do need to reduce the cream/coconut mixture a bit first as a result.

Does it have to be an English style rice pudding? In Indian cookery we often use beaten rice (poha) which is very quick to cook. You soak in water for ten minutes and then fry it with spices for a savoury dish or sugar/jaggery for sweet.

Typical recipe here but haven't tried this one so can't vouch for it.

Try cooking rice in water with a pinch of salt before adding to the hot milk.
The following recipe is better if cooked for much longer as it then becomes rich and creamy, however it should work with the half hour.

Use short grain rice and full fat milk. Only add sugar after rice is cooked as sugar added at the beginning can harden rice.
Place 2.4 litres milk in a saucepan with a stick of cinnamon, a strip of lemon peel and a strip of orange peel. (No pith, as bitter) Heat to infuse milk, meanwhile set another saucepan on to heat with 200 gram short grain rice and 200 ml water. Add pinch of salt and bring to the boil. When rice has absorbed the water tip it into the near boiling milk. At this stage you would simmer gently but as you don't have the time let boil very gently stirring so milk doesn't catch to bottom of saucepan. Cook for as long as possible. You may add some cream if it doesn't seem creamy enough. Add sugar and stir to blend. A small knob of butter may be blended in at the end.
Pour into serving bowl or individual dishes and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
Alternatively sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon and caramelise with a kitchen torch

Could your DD use ground rice? it makes a very creamy soft pudding, good served with stewed fruit.
It's a traditional British pudding if that is part of the assignment.
Usually cooked on the hob rather than in the oven. Lots of recipes on the web, try the Whitworths website.

Thank you for the ideas.
The recipe she is trying to follow is for a Persian style pudding. Tastes delicious but is simply nowhere near as quick as the recipe book suggests, and she is very time limited as she is having to cook numerous other dishes within a set time period.

Will try the suggestion for partially cooking the rice in some salted water first.