Rice à L'Impératrice with Raspberry Coulis

Serves 4

Preparation: 30 minutes

Chilling Time: 2 hours

When I was a small child growing up, my mother used to make this recipe taken from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management written in 1861 - it contains literally thousands of amazing recipes and even a few illustrations, but not compared to the quality of photos of today!

This rice pudding made with double cream and set in a mould and served with either a fruit compôte or a raspberry coulis - is quite wonderful.   

The tartness of the coulis compliments the richness of this delicious pudding to perfection.

Ingredients

56g / 2 oz Caroline, pudding or short grain rice

112g / 4 oz castor sugar, or an alternative sweetener

7g / 1½ teaspoons gelatine

500ml / 1 pint of whole milk

250ml / half pint of double cream

1-2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

For the Coulis

2 tins of raspberries, drained and sieved

or pack frozen raspberries, defrosted and liquidised

A modest amount of sweetening for the frozen or fresh raspberries as you need to keep this fairly tart to offset the richness of the rice pudding

AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO....

1. Bring the milk and sugar to boiling point, sprinkle in the rice and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
   
   
2. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon to ensure that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan.
   
   
3. Dissolve the gelatine in one tablespoon of water and add it to the rice.
   
   
4. Flavour to taste with the vanilla essence.
   
   
5. When the rice pudding has cooled sufficiently, mix in as lightly as possible the stiffly whipped cream.
   
   
6. Pour into a mould or glass serving dish and set aside until firm in the refrigerator.     You should allow at least an hour for this.
   
   
7. Meantime, liquidise the fruit and if possible, sieve to remove the seeds.   Sweeten sparingly to allow the tart flavour to complement the rice pudding.