The Queen of Puddings

My lovely mother, Joan, wasn’t always the best of cooks.

Such was her enthusiasm for making quite certain her food was thoroughly cooked that she would often roast, boil or grill each tasty morsel to within an inch of its life.

Her carbon-coated sausages and charred steak were legendary. Even today, more than 20 years after her death, should I serve up anything a little on the well-done side, my husband claims it has been “Joaned”.

But there was one culinary area where my mother seriously excelled. She was the absolute, undisputed queen of puddings; the doyenne of desserts. Perfect pies, sumptuous trifles, glorious gateaux all took turns at our family table. Sunday lunch rose to a sensational, sweet crescendo as mum rounded off the occasion with a dessert-to-die-for.

On the rare times that a shop-bought pudding graced our table, mum would snub her nose at it, lambasting its inadequate proportions and inferior flavour with the ferocity of a disappointed food critic.

Here in Australia, as the seasons turn from autumn to winter, I recall the happy Saturday afternoons we spent harvesting apples from the trees in the garden, rescuing the windfalls first before plucking the prize specimens from their heavily-laden branches. These were old-fashioned cooking apples – too bitter to eat raw but tangy and delicious as the buried treasure in a homemade pie.

So, in honour of foodie fortnight – and in memory of mum – here’s a recipe for one my favourite family desserts, traditional rice pudding. Mum’s recipes were all in her head, so her exact method is lost in the mists of time. This one comes from this month’s Notebook magazine and is easy to follow – we tried it this weekend. The creamy rice works perfectly with the delicate vanilla.

I’ve added the roasted rhubarb as a reminder of our fruit-picking sessions. It grew in a clump at the bottom of our garden and, as a child, I would screw up my face at its ruby red tartness, but today I love the sweet and sour combination of squidgy cooked rhubarb with a sprinkle of sugar.

Enjoy,

Deborah.

Traditional Rice Pudding

Serves 4-6

2 cups (500ml) milk
300ml thin cream

1/2 cup (110g) arborio rice, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
Ground nutmeg
2 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 160C. Combine milk, cream, rice, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean and seeds in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until it reaches a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside for 15 minutes to infuse.

Remove and discard the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean. Add egg yolks and stir to combine. Pour rice mixture into a 4 cup (1 litre) capacity ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until rice is tender and custard is set. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm.

Roasted rhubarb

500g rhubarb
85g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 200C. Rinse and dry the rhubarb. Discard the leaves, trim the ends and cut the rhubarb into 2-inch pieces. Put the rhubarb in a shallow dish, tip the sugar over, toss together, then spread into a single layer.

Cover with foil and roast for 15 mins. Remove the foil and roast for another 5 mins or until tender and the juices are syrupy.

Tagged as: Deborah