“Rice pudding is a dish very close to my heart; my mum was brought up on it and she has passed it on to me,” says Bruce. “I have grown up on it and loved it. Now my children make this rice pudding with me and love it. These are the sorts of memories that make up a memorable dish; not just that it tastes good, but that you associate it with a special time in your life and that makes it comforting.

“First you must find a standard-sized coffee mug, you know, your morning coffee mug, not the massive ones you get in Starbucks. This is your measuring vessel and if you need to make more you just find a bigger mug.”

Bruce Wilson, head chef Paternoster Chop House

Ingredients: (enough for 4-6 hungry adults)

½ mug pudding rice
½ mug golden caster sugar
½ mug double cream
3½ mugs whole milk
seeds scraped from 2 vanilla pods or ½ capful vanilla extract

To finish:

4 large good-quality, free-range egg yolks
100ml double cream

Method:

Preheat the oven to 140ºC and prepare a circle of baking parchment to fit the circumference of an ovenproof pan. [A skillet or wide shallow saucepan is best for this.]

Put all of the ingredients (apart from the eggs and cream ‘to finish’) into the pan. Heat slowly, stirring continuously until the mixture comes to the boil and has thickened slightly.

Place your circle of baking parchment over the pan and cook in the oven for one hour.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 20-25 minutes – this will allow the rice to absorb more liquid. Whisk the eggs and cream together and fold into the rice pudding. Allow to stand for a further two minutes then serve with lashings of fruit jam and more double cream.