Sometimes, when I am planning a pudding, it can feel like there is a hitch in my brain, a little sticky spot that I catch on, and have to release myself from before I can move on. That hitch, that sticky spot, is rhubarb and custard. I know that there are other pudding bases, sweet dishes that are more original, more popular. I know that there exist other marvellous fruits that deserve the spotlight, that there are chocolate concoctions that will ooze and impress, bitter caramels that will shock and delight. But in order to get to them, I have to move past my first instinct which is always: rhubarb and custard.
It’s not simply that it is a default combination in my mind. ‘Default’ suggests something boring and uninspired, like toast for lunch, or tomato pasta for supper – not unenjoyable, but not exactly interesting. For me, it is the opposite: that rhubarb and custard is such a wonderful combination, that it is so interesting, that it can be difficult to think of anything else.
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