Comfort puddings

It's that unpredictable season when the weather literally blows hot and cold and there is a certain unease as we wait expectantly for cooler days and nights. The only consolation is the abundance of fruit, most of which can be made into delicious desserts. Pauline D. Loh shares some recipes.

The first pudding I ever ate was a rice pudding with stewed prunes, the Friday night dessert at my very English boarding school. It was sweet, milky rice served with a preserved fruit my granny made me eat only if my digestive system was out of sorts. It was little wonder then that the kitchen had thought the little Chinese girl was "odd" for not liking "pudding".

Well, the Chinese girl is not so little now and she has learned to appreciate pudding for what it is, something the English do very well. There is still a little truth to those Asterix and Obelix jokes about English cooks boiling everything from boar to chicken to potato and Brussels sprouts. But pudding actually improves with prolonged boiling, witness the classic Christmas pud.