The most ambrosial rice pudding
with a lush rhubarb-strawberry-fennel seed conserve
We got a bit cocky over here in the UK, didn’t we – thinking summer had not just come early but was here to say.
Oh nope. It’s been the old four seasons in one day trick each day this week; albeit the emphasis has been on autumn and winter.
Because of the previously dry and generally clement weather, I’d been planning a summery pudding for this week’s post. Or maybe a salad or two.
But I’ve changed tack to match the mercury, and offer instead a luxurious, creamy, quite literally ambrosial stove stop rice pudding; with a rhubarb, strawberry and fennel seed conserve to be lavishly spooned on top.
No doubt this’ll prompt yet another change in the weather. But at least that’d be for the better. In any event, a rice pudding in this vein (essentially a loose, creamy, sweet and sweetly spiced (vanilla and orange peel) risotto) is also pretty damn good when served chilled. Again with some of that rhubarb-strawberry-fennel seed combination on top.
A quick word on the conserve.
Anyone who’s followed me for more than a year or so will know I’m a fan of poached to perfectly pink forced rhubarb.
The sludgier-looking-when-cooked field rhubarb is my first and most enduring rhubarb love, though. Think of it as the late bloomer whose trodden their own path, rather than the precocious and indeed forced prodigy.
Field rhubarb - proper rhubarb - reminds me of the Sunday crumbles and charlottes of my youth. Sharp, confident and characterful, it does need to be balanced with sugar (or honey or syrup) but it has a unique flavour that both stands out amongst anything, but also goes so well with comforting things like butter, bronzed oats, cream, and aromatics such as vanilla, fennel, anise, cardamom and ginger.
On its own it’s right up there among my favourite British ingredients (see also gooseberries, damsons and apples (in September). But yeah, sludgy looking.
If that puts you off, stew it with strawberries, and things turn prettier, sweeter, more floral. And add a little orange, honey and fennel seed? *chef’s kiss*
This week’s recipe(s) and Cook’s Notes are for paid supporters. So see some of you below the line, and otherwise I’ll see you again next week. Best, Ed.
p.s. you know what tastes great before rice pudding? Chicken. And there’s loads and loads of ideas on that theme in Peckish …
p.p.s. alongside field rhubarb, you’ll be noticing elderflowers in the hedgerows at the moment. Wait for the sunshine to come again (it surely will?). Pick it. Then fry it. All the details here:
In the centre #15 | Deep Fried Elderflowers
Every morning, while cycling my son to school, I make sure to point out what’s happening to, on and around the trees, hedges and bushes along our route. I think it’s because I’m hyper-conscious that I, a child of the countryside, am bringing him up as a very urban one. Might also be because I’m getting old.
The recipe
Rice Pudding with Rhubarb, Strawberry and Fennel Seed Conserve
Make this. You’ll love it.