A Fabiola dish is a dessert of rice pudding with fruit and whipped cream.
Preparation:
- making a thick white rice pudding
- rinse about 100 g of white rice in a sieve under cold water, so that it will burn less easily later – let it drain
- put the rice in a pan with a litre of milk
- add 100 g of sugar
- put the lid on the pan and let it simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon
- let it cook for a few more minutes
- let it cool for a day
2. cut fruit into cubes and catch the juice that drips out in the meantime
3. making fresh whipped cream
- pour 200 g of full-fat cream into a mixing bowl
- add a little sugar if desired
- whip to whipped cream. Do not stir, but make short, vigorous circular movements
- stop when it becomes firm, otherwise it turns into butter
4. then carefully mix the cream into the rice pudding and add the fruit juice as well – decorate with the fruit
5. serve in individual bowls or in a dish
Elisabeth Riebs, the granddaughter of Céline
portrait through the lens of Princess Stéphanie de Windisch-Graetz (1939-2019)
Céline’s town garden in Aarschot is admired for the beautiful colours and breathtaking scents of its roses.
“It is with great pleasure that I would like to write here about a dish that was a fixture on every festive menu of my beloved late mother. In Aarschot everyone knew her as Miss Bols, because generations benefited from her teaching. I am happy to write this contribution at the invitation of Pieter Van Kerckhoven, whom I got to know in 1983 as my pupil at the college of Aarschot. It was a new link in the relations between our two families: my grandmother, Alida Bols-Cloots, bought fabrics to have her dresses made by Tineke Van Dyck, Pieter’s grandmother! Our mothers regularly chatted when they met, my family were clients of Notary Van Kerckhoven, and as a child I was the altar boy and, for the communion round of the Reverend Goor, the notary was the driver. But now to the subject… A richly laden table always awaited my parents’ guests, and that was already the case with my grandparents. Early on I understood how important the pleasures of the table are in building a network of relationships. Did Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand not say: “Le meilleur auxiliaire d’un diplomate, c’est bien son cuisinier”. My parents supported me unconditionally in building my career, among other things by organising countless festive meals. Invariably on the menu: Fabiola dish! My mother stressed the following points: white rice pudding, so without saffron, let it cool for a day, and the secret is to mix enough whipped cream into the rice pudding! Then decorate ad libitum with fruit and whipped cream! Legion is the list of (eminent) people who over decades have enjoyed the Fabiola dish, even a memorable evening with Mayor Free Coekaerts and his wife … and the Secretary of Queen Fabiola and his wife … So many beautiful memories to cherish …” – Gunnar Riebs
(1991) Monsignor Jean Petrus Canisius van Lierde, Vicar General of the Pope for Vatican City, enjoys the Fabiola dish in Aarschot at the home of the Riebs family.
