Vanilla Rice Pudding with Poached Quince

This is Autumn in a bowl. Rich, warm rice pudding speckled with vanilla bean adorned with ruby red poached quinces. Quince are a fruit I rarely get to use as they’re quite difficult to get hold of. I never see them in the supermarket! They require some love to get them ready to eat but it’s so worth it. Once poached in a fragrant syrup for 3 hours, they turn from hardy and bitter to a soft, aromatic fruit with a gorgeous scarlet colour.

For this lovely vanilla rice pudding, I used Sophie Bamford’s recipe. I’ve used it countless times and love it every time. It’s the perfect amount of richness without being sickly. You can find it over on her Substack.

Poached Quince - recipe adapted slightly from Great British Chefs
6 large quince
1 lt water
230g caster sugar
2 lemons
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cardamom pods, crushed

Method
Place the water, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom into a large saucepan. Peel the zest off the lemons in strips and add to the pot, along with the juice. Stir together and place over medium heat. Stir the syrup occasionally while it comes to the boil.

While the syrup comes to the boil, you can prep the quinces. Cut the very top and bottom off of the quince before peeling and cutting into quarters. Remove the cores. Once the syrup has come to a boil, turn down the heat to low and add in the quinces. Cut a piece of baking paper to fit the pan and cut a hole in the middle in order to let the steam out. Place the piece of baking paper directly on top of the syrup/quinces and leave to simmer for 3 hours, or until the quinces are a ruby red and tender. Take off the heat and place into a container along with the syrup. Leave to cool. Serve the poached quinces in their syrup with the warm rice pudding and enjoy.