Creamy Risotto Pudding

I searched several recipes over the internet looking for that perfect rice pudding, finally took all the key highlights I wanted to see in mine and threw it all together. I really like the idea of adding wine to the risotto, like you would do for cooking it for a dinner… then I came across Jamie Oliver’s recipe. My intention was to use a Cranberry Wine from Muskoka Lakes Winery & Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh

Johnston's Cranberry Marsh

(Note, I need to buy more) and a handful of craisins, so that part will have to wait. Below is the final out come of this delicious delicacy, enjoy

Ingredients
6 ripe peaches, halved (or 1 cup cranberries)
1/4 cup 4 tablespoons sugar
1-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter
2  vanilla beans
325 g risotto rice
1 cup white wine
1 litre whole milk
100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

Directions
When you halve the peaches, leave the stones in – they will come out easier after they have been cooked. Put them into a small pan with 4 tablespoons of the sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Put a lid on top and slowly simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the peach skin and stones can be easily removed. You don’t want to cook them to pulp – they should be soft but should still hold their shape. Remove from the heat and put to one side.
In an large, thick-bottomed pot with a lid, slowly melt two-thirds of the butter. Score down the length of the vanilla beans and remove the seeds by scraping a knife down the inside of each half. Add the seeds to the butter and stir(if using extract skip this step), cook for 1 minute then add your rice and remaining sugar. Turn the heat up to medium, stir the rice, and add the wine, continuing to stir until it has almost cooked away. Now add the milk little by little. Keep the rice on a slow but constant simmer for about 16 or 17 minutes and stir often. When the rice has cooked through it should be al-dente. You may need to add a little more milk or water just to adjust the desired consistency. Remove from the heat, add the rest of the butter, nutmeg and remaining cinnamon (if using vanilla extract add now), stir, place a lid on top and leave for a few minutes.
Remove the skin and stones from the peaches, discard them and take the peaches to the table with your block of dark chocolate, cut into small pieces. Spoon the risotto on to plates or ramkins, then grate some of the dark chocolate into the middle of each one. Just so you know, a perfect risotto should slowly creep and ooze to the side of your plate, so don’t worry if it starts to spread out!
Divide peaches and place some on each plate, then drizzle over some of the lovely juice.
You refrigerate a couple hours to chill throught, or serve warm.

Chocolate Risotto

Chocolate Risotto

Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups half and half, plus more as needed
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup red wine
pinch of salt
2 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted, for garnish
Instructions
In a medium saucepan, bring cream, half and half, vanilla and salt to a low simmer. Keep the heat on low and watch the mixture to avoid boiling.
While the liquid is heating up, add butter to a dutch oven. Once the butter has melted, add the rice and stir. Allow it to toast for a few minutes, stirring, then add red wine to deglaze the pan.
Once the wine has cooked into the risotto and not a lot of liquid remains in the pan, add a ladle of cream. Stir frequently, allowing the cream to slowly absorb into the rice. Adjust the temperature as needed, alternating between low and medium low. You don’t want to the heat too high or the liquid will be gone before the risotto is fully cooked. Keep an eye on the saucepan with the cream as well. You want it barely simmering to prevent reducing.
Repeat the process of adding cream and stirring until all of the liquid has been used, approximately 30 minutes. Test the risotto for doneness. It should be soft but slightly toothsome. If necessary, continue cooking and stirring on low heat until the rice has finished cooking.
Stir in the chocolate and remove the pan from the heat. Continue stirring until the chocolate is fully incorporated.
The risotto will thicken as it sits. Stir in additional half and half if desired to create a thinner consistency (start with 1/2 cup). Garnish with toasted sliced almonds before serving.
Notes
If you run out of liquid but feel the rice still has a long way to go, you can heat up some more half and half and continue ladling it into the rice.
Cream will reduce more quickly than stock so keep the temperature very low on both the saucepan and the risotto pan. Kept a close watch on both pans and moved them on and off the heat as needed to maintain a consistant temperature. You want a barely bubbling simmer.  Also, the cream takes longer to absorb into the rice so if the heat is too high on either pan you’ll run out of liquid before the risotto is finished.
I recommend stirring for the entire cooking process. Burnt cream does not make for a romantic dessert.
Origional blogger said, I made this twice and the first time I had a near disaster. The cream separated at the very end, causing an oily residue to appear around the finished product. To avoid this, keep the temperatures low, do not add cold cream at any time during the process and remove the risotto from the heat after adding the chocolate. However, should this happen to you do not panic! It’s very easy to fix. Simply place the risotto in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl. Allow the separated liquid to drain and then place the risotto in a clean bowl. Stir in some additional half and half to compensate for the lost liquid before serving. No one will know and it will still taste delicious!

Savory  Simple

Sweet Vanilla Risotto with Poached Peaches & Chocolate

People in Britain have always had a bit of a soft spot in their hearts for rice pudding. However, the convenience and relative quality of tinned Ambrosia rice pudding has stopped a lot of people cooking the real thing. I thought it would be good to get you making this lovely old British dessert, but with a northern Italian twist – in the style of a risotto. Pudding rice and risotto rice are both plump, short-grain and starchy, so I thought it would be a good test to see if risotto rice would make great rice pudding – and it did. It has to be one of the best rice puddings I’ve ever made! It’s lovely served with the peaches, but you could also use apricots, strawberries or rhubarb.

Nutritional Information (amount per serving)
Calories 404kcal | Carbs 58.4g | Sugar 26.1g | Fat 15.0g | Saturates 9.2g | Protein 9.4g

Serves 8
Approx time: 50
Difficulty: not too tricky

Ingredients

6 ripe peaches, halved
6 tablespoons caster sugar
½ stick cinnamon
1 orange, zest and juice of
3 tablespoons butter
2 vanilla pods
325 g risotto rice
1 wineglass white wine
1 litre full fat milk, preferably organic
100 g good-quality white chocolate, grated
100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
1 handful fresh mint, leaves picked

Method

When you halve the peaches, leave the stones in – they will come away a lot more easily after they have been cooked. Put them into a small pan with 4 tablespoons of the sugar, the cinnamon stick and the zest and juice of the orange. Put a lid on top and slowly simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the peach skin and stones can be easily removed. You don’t want to cook them to pulp – they should be soft but should still hold their shape. Remove from the heat and put to one side.

In an appropriately sized high-sided, thick-bottomed pan with a lid, slowly melt two-thirds of the butter. Score down the length of the vanilla pods and remove the seeds by scraping a knife down the inside of each half. Add the seeds to the butter and stir. Continue to cook for 1 minute before adding your rice with the remaining sugar. Turn the heat up to medium, stir the rice, and add the wine, continuing to stir until it has almost cooked away. Now add the milk little by little. Keep the rice on a slow but constant simmer for about 16 or 17 minutes and stir it as often as you can. In this way you can massage the starch out of the rice and this will give you a silky, oozy end product, much like the classic Italian risotto. When the rice has cooked through it should be soft yet still holding its shape. You may need to add a little more milk or water just to adjust the consistency. Remove from the heat, add the grated white chocolate and the rest of the butter, then stir, place a lid on top and leave for a few minutes.

Remove the skin and stones from the peaches, discard them along with the cinnamon stick, and take the peaches to the table with your block of dark chocolate, snapped into small pieces. Spoon the risotto on to plates, then push a couple of pieces of dark chocolate into the middle of each one. Just so you know, a perfect risotto should slowly creep and ooze to the side of your plate, so don’t worry if it starts to spread out! Gently tear the peaches and place some on each plate, then drizzle over some of the lovely juice and sprinkle over a few mint leaves. By the time you go to eat it, the dark chocolate will have melted. Joy joy joy!

Source: Copyright © 2014 JamieOliver.com

How to make Rice Flour at home

How to make Rice Flour at home

Prep time
1 hour
Total time
1 hour

Ingredients
Raw Rice (as much as you want)
Water
Food Processor / Dry blender / Grinder
* 1 cup rice gives 1 and ½ cups Rice flour

Instructions
Start off by soaking rice flour in water for 30-60 minutes. Then drain the water and spread out the rice on a clean kitchen cloth. Let that almost dry (for about 10 minutes).
While still mildly wet, add to a food processor / dry blender / grinder in batches.
Grind for 4-6 minutes or until you have a super fine rice powder. (depends on your grinder)
Add the rice powder to a fine sieve & sift it to get super fine rice flour.
Store in air tight container until use.

Notes
It is important to grind the rice when mildly wet because if it is dry, it wont grind properly
As you’re using slightly wet rice, use the rice flour immediately. To store it, roast it for a couple minutes until hot and then let it cool and store.

♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨

♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨♨

SOURCE: http://foodomania.com/how-to-make-rice-flour-home/

Mandarin Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is a great way to use up lots of leftover rice all at once, and everyone loves rice pudding, kids and adults! You can add some cinnamon and nutmeg, or some raisins and dried fruit for a breakfast rice pudding. If you’ve got a large amount of leftover rice you need to use up, try turning it into rice pudding.

Greek Rice Pudding

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
1 litre / 1¾ pints milk
120 gm / 4¼ oz short grain or Arborio rice
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon clear rosewater syrup
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1.   Place milk and rice in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, while you bring the milk to a simmer.
2.   Lower the heat just before the milk comes to the boil and cook gently, uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until each grain of rice is tender but still shapely.
3.   Add sugar, vanilla and rosewater syrup, and stir well until sugar dissolves.
4.   Mix cornflour to a paste with an extra tablespoon of milk.
5.   Add cornflour paste to the rice, raise the heat slightly, and stir well until the mixture thickens to a creamy texture.
6.   Pour into 4 shallow individual bowls.
7.   Sprinkle with cinnamon.
8.   Serve warm or cold.

Tips:
If you prefer a baked rice pudding with a crusty top, pour the cooked rice into a buttered ovenproof dish, dot with a little butter and bake at 180ºC / 350ºF for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.