Rice Pudding

We took advantage of a few days leave and hopped on a (stunningly efficient) Grand Central train to Yorkshire, away from the sea and the house admin and the wifi. A cattle farm was our destination, 200 acres of pure, unspoilt English countryside complete with emerging snowdrops and catkins aplenty. 

We ate pheasant casserole, homemade pork pies and slabs of sliced ham but it was milk that really tasted good. It was almost buttery in colour, thicker and had one hell of a cream line. Almost sweet. Apparently the taste changes throughout the year, that's obvious I suppose. 

I was prompted to think milk, what a beautiful ingredient it can be and how to make it the recipe star. Rice pudding was my solution, one litre of the good stuff simply combined with vanilla, sugar, rice and nutmeg. 

Rice Pudding 

knob of butter 

140g Pudding Rice 

100g caster sugar 

1.2 litres full fat milk 

seeds from 1 vanilla pod 

grating of fresh nutmeg 

1/ Preheat the oven to 140C, gas mark 2.

2/ Using either the enamel dish or a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir through the rice and sugar. Pour over the milk and bring to a gentle simmer. 

3/ Grate over the nutmeg and pour the mixture into the 1.5 dish. Carefully transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours. Serve hot from the oven.