Cardamom Rice Pudding for Us Girls

Earlier this week I stumbled across a lovely recipe for Cardamom Rice Pudding by Sophie Dahl. And so yesterday morning I woke early, eager with the promise of pudding. Quite instantly fell in love with this recipe. It looked like such a sweet, pretty, girly dish. And it was...

I imagine this would be the perfect Mothers Day breakfast, served alongside a warm cup of tea with fresh flowers on the table. Sadly my mum despises rice pudding. Yes, she doesn't just dislike it, she despises it. So I won't even try to go there. She's not such a breakfast girl anyway, my mum. She'd prefer vegemite or pate on ciabatta. Are we related? Actually clearly we are, we look identical - superficially, she's really just a smaller version of me.

Back to this beautiful dish...

I am soon planning on hosting a brunch for my girlfriends. Brunch feels like the new dinner, to me. I have been saying this for a couple of months now, and, girls, I really do intend on having this brunch. Things have just been a little busy. But I truly cannot wait to have you over. I may even make this rice pudding. For my girls.

Recipe link here.

The cinnamon and cardamom provide a beautiful, deeply spiced undertone, which is lightened by the sweetness from the milk, vanilla and maple syrup. * note: I used maple syrup rather than sugar (the recipe gives you a choice), and I only used half the amount suggested as I found it would be too sweet otherwise. In addition, I served my rice pudding with some poached quinces I already had in the fridge, rather than Miss Dahl's spiced plums. Honestly, it was all a bit too sweet. I think I would next time serve this rice pudding with fresh berries or figs, and perhaps also a dollop of unsweetend Greek yoghurt.

A fabulous feature of this recipe is that it uses a significant amount of milk, so my girls are getting a very decent serve of calcium by delighting in a pretty bowl of loveliness. This dish is sweetly nutritious, which is what a girl is often after in life...

Thank you, Miss Dahl. You're fast becoming one of my favourite girls.

Heidi xo

P.S. Happy Mothers Day, mum. I still love you even though you despise rice pudding. You're truly the best girl of all.