English Sauce.

      Custard, creamy, silky, sweet yellow cup of pleasure, it's not Sponge and Custard, but Custard and sponge, at least for those who know anything about cookery. The English Sauce, as the French, like to say, disparagingly, if any contempt is actually meant.
      I can recall, some years ago, working in a catering establishment which had to produce a menu for the staff and Custard would make a regular appearance upon this menu. The problem being that the chefs had a bad habit of not measuring or weighing the ingredients which always produced an end result of stodgy or watery vile and flavourless mess. Not fit for human consumption, let alone staff!
      However, there came a day when a new Head Chef arrived and took the trainees to one side, then told each one to prepare a half-pint of custard and serve it accordingly and the trainees, in their care free careless way, all thought this would be easy. But then the Head Chef added; For any sauce which wasn't perfect, the maker could expect to be dismissed!   And the end result, well no one was dismissed and the custard served on the staff menu was perfect for ever after.
      In my humble understanding of the culinary arts and the production of custard, I can honestly advise, weigh, measure, stir-well and become familiar with the recipe.
      A simple recipe; 1 pint of milk. 1 flu oz of single cream. 1 vanilla pod. 4 egg yolks. 1 oz caster sugar. 1 level teaspoon cornflour.
      Now, in a suitable pan, preferably over a gas ring (adjustable flame) bring the milk, cream and vanilla pod to a simmer. Remove the vanilla pod. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together, in a bowl (you could already have done this) and then pour the milk and cream onto this mixture, whisking with a balloon whisk all the while. Then return this mixture to the pan and stir well over a low heat, with a spoon, wooden if possible, personally I use a melamine spoon, which works just as well. This process will help to thicken the custard, I often take the pan from the heat in the final stage and stir a good thirty or forty times for an extra smooth and creamy consistency. The sauce is now ready to serve, pour into a jug or straight into a bowl, with fruit or sponge.
      Of course if you haven't got a Vanilla Pod, you could always go to the corner shop.