Lemon rice pudding with confit of plums

Method

1. Put the rice, milk, vanilla pod and seeds, lemon zest, sugar and 75ml of the cream into a heavy-based pan and stir over a low heat until boiling. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and pick out the vanilla pod.

2. Add the soaked gelatine leaves to the rice while it is still warm. Whisk the remaining cream until semi-whipped, fold it into the rice while the rice is at room temperature, and put the mixture into greased ring moulds.

3. For the plums: put all the ingredients, except the plums, into a pan, bring to the boil and reduce the liquid by about two-thirds. Add the plums to the simmering liquid and poach for 20 minutes.

4. Remove them from the heat, but leave them in the liquor for a day to allow the flavours to be fully absorbed.

5. Preheat the oven to 90-100C/gas 1/4, or the lowest temperature. Take the plums from the liquor, put them on a tray and bake them in the low oven for about 6 hours. This concentrates the flavour - they will still be very moist but chewy and semi-dried.

6. Put half the poaching liquor into a small pan, bring it to the boil and and reduce it to a syrup.

7. To serve, unmould each rice pudding onto a plate (you may need to warm the moulds using a kitchen blowtorch to release them). Scatter around the plum halves and pour the syrup on top.