Nici Wickes: Parisian rice pudding with salted caramel sauce and More From a Quiet Kitchen

‘I’ve always gained a great deal of pleasure out of cooking — it’s one of the most exquisite ways to look after yourself, to stay grounded, to keep yourself company and be reminded that we are all far more capable than we know. And I’ve needed this more than ever of late.’ 

Nici Wickes has written a number of books, spending six years as a food editor for Viva and NZ Herald, and five creating and testing recipes for New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, and contributing her craft to various other media. 

Over the last few years, she’s been through a lot, the pandemic, floods, cyclones, and a bout of covid saw her losing her appetite not only for her beloved craft, but also the search for life’s joys. 

‘More From a Quiet Kitchen’ is a celebration of her return to her joy, crammed with heart-warming dishes such as ‘chowder for comfort’, ‘corn and bacon risotto’, and delicious desserts such as ‘lemon cheesecakey cake’. 

 

To celebrate the book’s release, Nici’s recipe of the week is ‘Parisian rice pudding with salted caramel sauce’, a taste of what this new cookbook has to offer. 

 

Parisian rice pudding with salted caramel sauce 

Good old rice pudding – elevated to exceptional heights!  

 

Ingredients 

1 ½ cups whole milk  

⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon risotto rice  

2 tablespoons sugar  

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)  

¼ cup cream, whipped  

Salted caramel sauce  

½ cup caster sugar  

2 tablespoons water  

1 tablespoon butter  

100ml cream  

½ teaspoon sea salt or more to taste

  

Method 

Bring milk, rice, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds to a slow simmer in a pot. Simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring every time you think of it, until it thickens and the rice is creamy and cooked. Set aside to cool.  

While the rice cooks make the caramel. In a small pot, heat the sugar and water over a medium heat, swirling the pot if needed but not stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 5-7 minutes or until it has turned a lovely dark golden colour. Remove from the heat, whisk in the butter, cream and salt (it will spit and froth, but don’t worry). Whisk until you have a smooth sauce.   

To serve, fold whipped cream through the cooled rice pudding. Drizzle with sauce and sprinkle over hazelnuts. And dream of being in Paris!  

Note: The sauce stores well in the fridge, needing just a little heat to bring it back to drizzling consistency. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at BE.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
This week, we're doing things a little bit differently because
Nikki has just published More from a Quiet Kitchen, her
latest book, and it is a deeply personal collection of recipes, stories, anecdotes,
and life lessons. And Nickie's with us this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good morning, Yes, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Check.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
First of all, congratulations, Just like a Quiet Kitchen, it
is beautiful, and I love the way that you sprinkle
in like your own anecdotes and your own stories, your
own little philosophical thoughts and lessons between the recipes that
have enriched your life so much. So just just for

(00:51):
anyone who hasn't seen the book, just tell us about
the concept a little bit.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
First of all, So, I guess I wrote a couple
of books and they were sort of fairly traditional. They
were you know, and they kind of you know, desserts, mains, starts, whatever,
that kind of thing. And then these books, this series,
I really just feel as though that doesn't do that
sort of the food journey any any service, if you like.

(01:15):
So for some reason, my publisher has gone along with it.
So I get to have chapter headings like solitude and loneliness, retreats,
regrets and ridiculousness and that sort of thing. Because what
I do is, I suppose I do think of my life,
you know, as a series of kind of experiences and

(01:36):
the food that feeds into that. Literally, So yeah, I've
got no interest in sort of doing anything traditionally. But
then after I send it off the first draft to
the publisher, and the first edit always comes back where
within each one of those chapters they will put the
save the savory recipes first and the sweet ones, even
though I have sprinkled the sweet ones and I reverse them,

(02:00):
and I go back and go, no, no, I don't
want them to.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Be like that.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
That's so when we got a copy of the book,
Liby and I, my producer, Liby and I immediately talked
about it and just said, the thing that we love
about you is your authenticity, Like you are who you are,
and that's why we love you, and you don't there's
no effort to ever try and be cool or cooler
than you are. Don't get me wrong, cooler, you know

(02:25):
what I mean. There's no you are you are you
are you, And that's what I think your readers love
about you. As well. And the truth is that since
over the last couple of years, right since COVID, you
have had a bit of an up and down time,
to say the least.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, and look, that's lovely for you to say that
around authenticity, I'd say that's really hard one for any human.
So I wasn't I mean, we were all born authentic
and then we learned not to be have to get
it back. So I wouldn't say that my thirties were
particularly authentic, or at least not for myself. I mean,
I've probably ended up exactly as other people saw me,

(03:03):
but I angsed a lot about what people were seeing,
not in a vain way, not in a oh I
need to present this way, but I just was very
unsure of myself, whereas I think I did present quite
a sort of shore front, whereas now I've kind of
come to you know, my outsides really really kind of
matched my insides these days, which is a lot of
therapy and a lot of a lot of eggs. Team.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
But there you go. So And I mean I mentioned COVID,
but after COVID you got hit by cyclon Gabrielle pretty hard.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, we did, you know, And I think a lot
of the country did, and it really woke up those
of us who were affected were woke up, we really did.
And my small community got hit pretty hard. There's still
houses down here at Port. White cuts are red stickered,
you know, the hills slipped down, and you know, my
own property flooded, and it was it was pretty It

(03:51):
was pretty shocking, to be honest. If you haven't been
directly affected by you know, some sort of climate crisis
or an earthquake or whatever, I think you feel empathy,
but you don't necessarily really feel it, you know what
I mean. Whereas we were there, I was shouldn't deep
in water, going, oh, how does this not flow away?

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Could it just go?

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Please? And it really did shake me for quite some time.
I felt like I really couldn't trust trust nature, if
you like, and yet that's the only thing we can trust.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And probably do you feel Do you feel more secure now?
I do?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, yeah, that that has gone. But it took a
bit of work. I had just sort of cooked my
waist through it. And I also made sure Jack that
I got out a lot of nature. So I do
think that more from a quiet kitchen, certainly, the beautiful
imagery that Toddy has taken there's a lot of me
in the water, up walking up in hills and that
sort of thing. I really had to kind of tune
back towards nature and embrace it.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, the photos are gorgeous. I mean, he's amazing. He
does an amazing job because it is it like a
real art, A couple of little things, a little anecdotes
and stories. I wanted to ask you about the eating
for one. You really lean into this and I love it.
In fact, you don't say it's just eating for one.
You say there's all sorts of stuff that can be
fun for one, traveling for one, going to concerts by yourself. Yeah, yes, yes,

(05:05):
I love so. Yeah, just talk to us a little
bit about that and why you felt it so important
to kind of fear that ethos around that.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Well, Look, lots of people find themselves single for lots
of different reasons, or as I like to say, you know,
living or being solo. Primarily we've all got great friends,
we've got family, we've got all that. But if you
haven't got a significant other, sometimes people that makes them
stop going out for dinner, they might not go to
a concert, they might yeah, not travel, I do all
of those things, and I love all of them. A

(05:33):
friend of mine particularly put me onto the going to
the concerts thing before a Fleetwood mat concert. She said, look,
I've bought a single ticket. You know, I know you
love them.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Why are you?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
And so we did. We met up beforehand.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
We both went and.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Sat in our seats, had a great night. In fact,
that was the last time that they toured in New Zealand.
I'm so pleased I didn't. You can often pick up
tickets for you know, sell out concerts. Dining alone is
always a little bit hilarious because everybody else is particularly
uncomfortable with that, apart from me, you know, while I'm sitting.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
In the nest. Yeah, I do think.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
I mean sometimes what I've given I've given my readers
some ideas around sit at what we call the pass
or you're up at a counter, if you can go
back to the same place so that they know you,
which is really lovely. Take a book, take a kindle.
These days we've got phones. Just sit there and steering
and off into the distance. It is more acceptable now.
But what I Reckonjeck is loads of people are comfortable

(06:27):
doing it when they travel for work or whatever. But
then when you're in your own hometown, does anyone want
to go up to Blue Breeze in and sit on
their own and have their mates see them do that? Well,
I used to do all the time when I lived
around Ponsiby, So you know, I think, don't don't worry
about all of that. And I have had people invite

(06:47):
me to the table, which I find really weird, you know,
just because they feel like, oh, no, your poor thing,
you're on their own. I never look at a couple
sitting not speaking to each other and go over and say,
do one.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Of you want to join me? You're not having a
good time, you know.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
So yeah, if you see someone diving alae, just ignore them.
It's fine, they're having a great time.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
I reckon the book thing is. I think the book
thing is yeah, absolutely critical, well not critical, but that's
the thing I love doing. I actually think this is
a little bit of a secret to I quite like,
especially when I'm overseas. But I don't know why. I
think it's. There's kind of bar culture in New York,
for example. It's a bit different. Yes, I love going
to a bar and having a glass of wine and
reading a book just by myself. Yeah, I love it.

(07:29):
I love it, and I always think I must look
so mysterious right now. I always think, my gosh, I
was looking at me thinking, my gosh, I'm a mysterious person.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Is he a spy?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Spy?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Is he a reviewer? Yeah, exactly, No, none of those things.
You're just out enjoying your own company. Yeah, and sometimes
it's really nice to enjoy the drink, the food really uninterrupted,
ready to get that experience kind of thing. I just
have some time alone. Yeah. I just don't think we
should be missing out on things. So that is a
big ethos for my books. And it's why so many

(08:02):
of the recipes serve one or two, because that is
the other thing is you know, for years even I
wrote recipes serves four to six.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Always it's hard for people to downscale those or they
feel like they have to sort of be eating something
much more austeer if it's just cooking for one, and
it really doesn't need to be. So Yeah, I'm pleased
they're bringing comfort to people.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
It's such a Yeah, it's and like I say, it is,
it is absolutely beautiful. I know that we're going to
we're going to put one of the recipes from the
book up online today caramel, which I feel like might
have been picked out for me. I just I've long
seid rice pudding is the most underrated of puddings.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Oh, I agree, and the French have elevated it. I
can still remember the little pistro that I went to
eat this in Paris and it comes cold in Paris,
or yes, at this time it may have just been
a trend and with some lightly whipped creams through it,
so it's light and billowy. And then they bring you
this lovely big bowl of of salted caramel sauce that

(09:07):
you can just ladle out as much as you wish.
Oh my goodness, it is so good, definitely so much.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Given you are such a beautiful part of the world
in Port wake outa. What's the record for the number
of toy and your nick of the woods?

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (09:22):
I saw your toy video yesterday and I thought, how fantastic.
I have a lot of towey around here as well.
I love them. I've never seen sex. Now I've got
a pair. I've got two peers that sit at either
corner of my property. But not sex with the.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Peers I'm always like, are they friends, Are they a
couple or do they hate each other? Like it's all
of those things could apply.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
But you know what I mean, I think everything about
a toy is slightly clumsy.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, they're not. They're not elegant until they stopped.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Flying exactly, and they're just amazing. But even their song,
it's so dis jointed and amazing, but it's not harmonious. Yeah,
they're they're they're they're seem to keep us gezing. I
think too. Yeah, but I was very envious of you,
and just for our listen as well. I love the
idea of your sugar water. A friend of mine gets
big oranges, she haves them, she puts them on a steak,

(10:13):
and within minutes they are being surrounded the oranges.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
So there you go. We're going to keep moving. Thank
you so much. All you got to do is Nicky
Weeks dot com is the best place to go. If
you want to get a signed copy of More from
a Quiet Kitchen, you can find it in all good
bookstores now as well.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio