STRAWBERRY AND ROSE RICE PUDDING

You can find dried rose petals in the baking aisles of good supermarkets.

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus macerating

Cooking time: 30 minutes

200g strawberries, destalked 2tbsp rosewater

2tbsp icing sugar

For the rice pudding:

1 vanilla pod

125g pudding rice 2tsp dried rose petals

800ml Jersey or whole milk 250ml double cream

50g caster sugar

1 Slice any large strawberries and keep the smaller ones whole. Put into a bowl with the rosewater and icing sugar and leave to macerate while you cook the rice pudding.

2 Split the vanilla pod along its length, scrape out the seeds and put in a heavy-based pan with the rice, rose petals, milk, cream and sugar.

3 Bring to just under the boil, then simmer for 30min, stirring constantly, until the rice is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid. The mixture should be fairly loose in texture as it will thicken on cooling. Add a little more milk if it starts to look too thick before the rice is cooked.

4 To serve, put the strawberries and their juices into a glass dish or wine glass, add a couple of spoonfuls of rice pudding, then top with another spoonful of strawberries. You can serve the rice pudding warm, at room temperature or chilled. Just bear in mind that as it cools the pudding thickens so you might want to add a drop of milk or cream to thin it out slightly beforehand.