I had to add just one last old memory lane recipe to complete my hat trick today, one that I love and no longer make as I am the only person at home that likes it, which is a shame, but a recipe I made a lot of when we use to live on the dairy farm.

 

I would walk up to the milking parlour with the Children when they were little with the dogs, with my churn and collect the milk unpasteurised, straight from the tank, something that I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be allowed to do today, health regulations and all that !!! But boy did it make the best ever creamiest rice pudding.

 

I thought this recipe would also be a good tribute to finding my “The Dairy Book of Family Cookery”, as the forward is for the Milk Marketing Board, which was set up by the diary farmers of England & Wales in 1933, this book when released in 1983 was to mark their 50th Anniversary, so it only seemed fitting.

 

Looking back I am surprised just how many recipes I have made from this book, how much I have learned since leaving home at the age of 19 with no cooking skills at all and how even at that age I had such an interest in food and always strove to push myself and try something a little different, but most of all I learned to cook for my family and express my love to them with food and family gatherings, something that I truly hope I have past onto them and something that they continue in their lives and with their families.

 

Buon appetito

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serves 4

50g pudding rice (you can use flaked rice, barley, tapioca, broken macaroni, but I have only ever made this with pudding rice)
1 pint of milk, full fat will give a creamier finish but if you are watching your diet you can use semi-skimmed or probably even skimmed
25g caster sugar
1 strip of lemon rind
grated nutmeg
15g English butter

Wash the rice and drain well. Put into a 1 1/2 pint buttered ovenproof dish and stir in the milk.

Leave the rice to soak and soften for 30 minutes. Add the sugar and lemon rind and stir well. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg and dot with butter.

Bake in the oven at 150c, 300f, gas mark 2 for 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Stir it after about 30 minutes.

Serve hot and if you like sprinkle with brown sugar or a nice dollop of jam.