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Yellow Plums and Rice
Put half a pound of rice in hot milk till it has absorbed all it can and is tender. Beat lightly the yolks of three eggs, beating in a lump of fresh butter the size of a pullet's egg; add powdered sugar and the whites of the eggs well beaten. Put the rice into this mixture and place all in a mold. Cook it gently for twenty-five minutes. Meanwhile take some very perfect yellow plums, skin and stone them and heat them in half a bottle of light white wine that you have seasoned with a little spice. Turn out the rice, put the yellow plums on the top and pour round the sauce, strained through muslin. Very good cold.
A moulded rice custard with a spiced wine compote, written for a cook who already knows how to set a mould in a water bath. The instructions leave several quantities open, so a few decisions have to be made before you start.
- The hinge: gentle heat"Cook it gently" is not specified further; gentle indirect heat is the safe reading. Set the buttered mould in a pan of hot water in a moderate oven, or cover and steam on the stovetop; twenty-five minutes suits a mould of about 1.5 quarts, which is what these quantities will fill. Fierce direct heat risks curdling the yolks.
- Rice and milkHalf a pound is a scant cup and a quarter of raw rice, and it wants roughly 4 cups of milk absorbed slowly over 25-30 minutes. Use a short or medium grain; long-grain rice will not give the creamy body the mould depends on. Let it cool to warm before the eggs go in.
- A pullet's egg of butterA pullet is a young hen and her eggs are small, so this is about 1.5 oz, or 3 tablespoons.
- SugarThe amount is not given. About 1/3 cup of superfine sugar suits the rice, with a tablespoon or two more in the wine if the plums are tart.
- Yellow plumsPossibly mirabelles, or one of the yellower greengages; the recipe says only "very perfect yellow plums." Peeling raw plums is easier after 20 seconds in boiling water. Ripe yellow plums need only 3-5 minutes in the hot wine or they collapse into jam.
- Half a bottle of light white wineAbout 12 oz, or 1.5 cups. "Light" most likely points to a light-bodied wine rather than a sweet one. The "little spice" is left to the cook; cinnamon and a clove or two would suit. Strain as directed after the plums come out.
- Turning outButter the mould well and let the pudding stand 10 minutes before inverting. It sets further as it cools; the original notes it is very good cold.
- YieldAbout six servings; expect to need a mould of roughly 1.5 quarts.
The Belgian Cook Book was assembled in Britain during the First World War, its recipes gathered from Belgian refugees who had fled the 1914 invasion, and it is generally said that the proceeds went to relief work. That origin shows in dishes like this one: a frugal base of rice and milk dressed up with eggs, butter and fruit, the sort of thing a household cook could stretch or economise as supplies allowed. The recipe specifies only yellow plums, of the kind long grown across northern France, Belgium and the Rhineland. Rice puddings turned out of a mould and ringed with fruit and syrup were standard continental restaurant and household fare in the period, and the instruction to strain the sauce through muslin is a reminder that these were expected to look neat on the plate.