The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Baked egg custard rice pudding Sweet satisfaction guaranteed
THE big question any Italian man has when he stands waiting to take his beautiful bride from the arm of his future father-in-law as she turns towards him at the altar is “Can she cook like my mother?”
No matter what other skills she has, how adoring and how besotted with him she is, if she can’t cook the right kind of sugo there will be trouble ahead.
His mother, dressed up in all her finery, can’t compete on looks or love, but will always have the upper hand in the kitchen!
It took me a while to learn how to please my man!
Although I grew up cooking for my large Italian family, learning from my mother-in-law and his Neapolitan grandmother, I gradually changed my style to reflect the freshness and richness of the traditional food from that glorious sun-drenched coast.
Nevertheless, even after 40 years, Philip has never completely trusted me to feed him in the manner he was accustomed.
He has always, just in case of emergency, stored a tin of Ambrosia Creamed Rice pudding at the back of the pantry… just in case I let him down.
With the news this week that Premier Foods is having trouble trying to sell the brand, I made this delicious baked rice pudding for him – just in case its stocks run out.
I don’t want to make a drama out of a crisis.
BAKED EGG CUSTARD RICE PUDDING
4 tablespoons short grain pudding rice (60g)
1litre full fat milk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 large free range eggs
1 vanilla pod (or half a teaspoon of vanilla extract) A blob of unsalted butter Grated zest of unwaxed lemon Grating of nutmeg
Method
Put the rice and half the milk and half the sugar in a saucepan.
Slit open the vanilla pod and add it to the saucepan, scraping out the seeds.
Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes until the rice is almost cooked.
Remove the vanilla pod and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 2 or 150C.
Grease an ovenproof dish with a capacity of just over a litre.
Whisk the eggs and stir in the remaining sugar and milk.
Mix the cooled baked rice into this mixture and use a fork to mix everything together.
Check the flavour to make sure it is sweet enough. Add the gratings of lemon zest and nutmeg.
Dot over a couple of blobs of butter.
Bake in the oven for three-quarters of an hour until the custard is baked and is slightly blackened at the sides.