Sweet cicely can be found in the herb garden or in hedgerows all over Yorkshire in May and June. Do make sure you identify it correctly. It has been confused with hemlock and cow parsley. The leaves of sweet cicely are bright green and taste sweet which means you can reduce the amount of sugar in cooking.
Makes 4 individual puddings
Ingredients
250ml double cream
250ml buttermilk
30g caster sugar
1 strip of lemon zest
4 gelatine leaves
½ tsp vanilla essence
400g rhubarb
2 tbsp sweet cicely chopped
100g caster sugar
Method
Place cream, buttermilk 30g caster sugar and lemon zest in a pan and warm gently until sugar has dissolved – do not allow the cream to boil. Remove from the heat.
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water. After five minutes, squeeze out water and stir into the warm cream mixture.
Stir in the vanilla essence.
Remove the lemon zest from the cream. Pour the flavoured buttermilk and cream into wine glasses or moulds and place in the fridge until set – about 2 hours.
Cut the rhubarb in 1cm pieces, place in a saucepan with the remaining caster sugar and sweet cicely.
Cover and cook gently for 5 minutes until soft. Leave to cool.
Serve puddings with the rhubarb and scatter with sprigs of sweet cicely on the top.