Clotted cream, bay and vanilla rice pudding with stewed cardamom plums

Rice pudding comes two ways. Baked and wholesome or rich in cream, velvety and slutty. I'm about to have an illicit affair...

If you’ve followed my career for a long time you will know that I am a diehard baked rice pudding fan. Only beaten by roast chicken, undressing a whole baked rice pudding of its skin is one of culinaries simple pleasures. My sisters didn’t like the skin, whereas I love the skin it. It’s a simple cook, wholesome, dependable... It reminds me of my mum.

I don’t know what’s going on with me right now. I’m craving the ambrosial creamy style that’s cooked on the hob. It’s pure rebellion. I feel like I’m having an illicit affair with a sluttier version.

The ingredient’s all go into jacuzzi of sweetened milk, bay and vanilla and cooks down gently into a slow simmer, where the rice grains start off by swimming around each other until they are full to burst and nestled right in together, grain to grain, before a final swell in rich clotted cream to enrich them – luxuriate them. Poured in a bowl and served togethere with a richly fruited and fragrant from cardamon, velvety stewed plums. Plums are a fruit that are just better cooked, drawing all the intense plum flavour out and mellowing with the sugar as they cook. A dash of piquant blood red opulence against the warming creamy, but rice that’s so firm it bites back. Its everything the other isn’t.

It’s served just hotter than blood temperature.

Woof! Here’s how you make it …

Serves 2

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time 40 minutes

For the rice pudding

400ml Whole milk

100g pudding rice

50g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, split with the seeds

2 bay leaves

227g clotted cream

A good grating of nutmeg

For the poached plums

8 plums, halved and stoned

3 tablespoons caster sugar

The juice of 2 orange

The juice 1 lemon

6 cardamom pods

To make the stewed plums; place the plums, sugar, juices and cardamon pods into a plan and gently bring to the boil. Give them a stir ever 2-3 minutes for 15 minutes. We want to keep as much of the shape of the plums as possible so do be extra cautios when doing this. It’s actually amazing, that plum skins peel back fairly quickly and the pectin, that thickens the plums is extracted quite early on. Poach the plums until just cooked through and the sauce has thickend. They will finish cooking in the residual heat of the pan. Leave until room temperature before serving.

To make the rice pudding; Put the milk, rice, sugar, vanilla, and bay into a saucepan. Gently bring to the boil and then turn down to its lowest simmer. Keep it simmering gently for 30 minutes. It’s a very long slow process and you must keep vigilant in scraping the bottom of the pan to stop the milk catching, especially towards the end of cooking. After 30 minutes, stir through the clotted cream and remove it from the heat. Pop a lid on and forget about it for 10 minutes. When it’s ready all the rice is just cooked through, with the same kind of bite a loose risotto - it will be really creamy. Its best served warm. As I said, a fraction hotter than blood temperature. With the stewed plums at room temperature alongside.