Risotto/pudding rice

I doubt they are the same kind of rice. Pudding rice usually has round grains and softens fairly quickly, while rice used for risottos or curries is long grained and stays firmer.

As far as taste goes you can cook puddings using long grained rice as you discovered.

The Co op sells pudding rice, so does Morrisons.

Risotto rice is also called Arborio rice. Not sure how it differs from pudding rice but it’s more expensive. It’s quite short grained. One thing about both pudding and risotto rice is that they’re both quite starchy/sticky and grains stick together when cooked.

I’ve used risotto rice, arborio rice, carnaroli rice, & paella rice, and found them just the same as pudding rice ( which also has short, round grains).

I use mainly arborio for puddings - I now do ours in the slow cooker - I add a tin of coconut milk during the cooking - delicious.

I agree with Daddima. I’ve used pudding rice for risotto and vice versa and to me, they are interchangeable.

In my experience, risotto rice is not long grained and does not stay firm like, for example, basmati.

Pudding rice won’t make a great risotto. All the stirring turns it to mush. However arborio can make a nice, if expensive, rice pudding. That is my experience.

Traditionally, the round rice was used for risottos. I remember Italian families using 'pudding rice' when they couldn't get 'risotto'. It is essentially the same, although Italians can get very fussy about what kind of 'round rice' (carnoli or arborio) and the Spanish will insist that paella rice (very similar) is different again.
Basically it absorbs more of the milk / stock. I had real trouble cooking with basmati rice until I was shown that it should really be steamed rather than simmered.

Welshwife. Sounds delicious. What quantities do you use and for how long?

Well, I just did what I should have done, dhurr! before posting since I have both, and compared them.

I have Arborio risotto, and while it’s not as round as my pudding rice it’s nothing like ordinary long grain or Basmati. I sometimes cook it in chicken stock and for rather longer than normal for (fussy eater) Gdcs, just with frozen peas added last minute. One of the few things guaranteed to go down well.

As for being easy - or not - to find, a Swedish friend’s son who was working here complained that it was impossible in the U.K. to get the right rice for their traditional sweet rice ‘porridge’, which they have at Christmas.

Not surprising that he couldn’t find it, since pudding rice is hardly ever shelved with other rice, more often with Ambrosia, etc. I had to tell him to ask for pudding rice.

I stick to the relevant rice eg; arborio for risottos, pudding rice, long grain for kedgeree and basmati for curries.

Hunted high and low in the supermarket for pudding rice too. Daft idea not having it alongside other types of rice. My logic was, I want to make my own rice pudding so, no point looking at ready made tinned varieties......wrong?

I often make a sort of risotto with cheap long grain rice, similar to yours, Witzend. I fry some chopped shallots in olive oil first, then add the rice and veg. stock. Then peas and a tin of sweet corn.
The purists will say that's not a risotto, but we like it. Goes well with fish

My late mum used to make a delicious rice pudding using sterilised milk (very creamy) and adding nutmeg and butter on top. Then I discovered Ambrosia in a tin once married and never looked back!

Nowadays if I fancy a pot of rice I go for Rachel’s organic. 1 minute in the microwave.

I realised reading this thread that here am I in my mid sixties and I’ve never made my own rice pudding!
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I have lots of arborio and rarely use it. I would love to make a rice pudding. Could someone give me quantities to use please.

I have never made rice pudding . Our local supermarket has a lovely line in rice pudding and its not the poshest.

It is very inexpensive and I have taken to eating rice pudding as a comfort snack. I must be in my second childhood.

I spent three weeks with a family in Italy learning to make a proper risotto. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "absent, is a not a risotto", as I watched my carefully stirred concoction go into the rubbish bin. Risotto rice – and there are several varieties – absorbs a lot more liquid than any other types of rice which is what gives risotto its wonderfully creamy texture. My advice, as a cookery writer for more than thirty years, is to buy a variety of risotto rice for risotto and keep pudding rice for puddings because pudding rice "is not a risotto absent" [must be read with a despairing Italian accent].

My first attempts at risotto were awful and binned until I finally got the hang of it.

I have always used the same Italian brand but now that you mention different varieties absent, maybe it’s time to try others for a comparison.

I have both risotto and pudding rice in my cupboard. I'm a bit of a purist .
We eat a lot of seafood risotto, it's an easy meal when we have DGD here. If vegetarian SIL is here, I make him a mushroom risotto, as an alternative.
It's one of my favourite meals.

On the other hand, I can't stomach rice pudding, but make it for DH. The last once was an absolute disaster! I put in in the oven, went to do something and promptly forgot about it! The smell of burnt rice pudding lingered for days and put me off it even more!

I’m also a purist on the rice front Marydoll! Thai Jasmine rice for Thai green/red curries, basmati for Indian, arborio for paella and carnaroli for risotto. People say there’s no difference until they try them with the right dish and then pronounce them delicious!

Strangely I’ve never made a rice pudding given my grandmother made one every week and I loved it whenever we visited - especially the skin!

I do have to admit, that I ran out of arborio for the paella and resorted to carnaroli!

As you may guess, we like rice dishes.

I like Tilda rice varieties, especially the mushroom, a pouch pinged n the microwave for 2 minutes! As you can tell I’m no Delia ....
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Urmstongran ?

All this talk about rice puddings, and now I want one.
We used to have it regularly, when I lived at home with mum and dad.

DH thinks rice is only a savoury dish, having been brought up in India, so I never make it for myself, now that there only the two of us here. So we have all sorts of rice varieties, except pudding rice.

I must go and get some, soon. The tinned stuff is not the same.

Grandetante Risotto is made from Arborio rice, which is round and similar n shape to pudding rice. Curry is eaten with long-grained basmati rice.

At the end of the day all rice is interchangeable, but some are better than otheres in specific situations.