28 May 2010

Rice pudding for summer


With the hens back laying again and the temperatures rising, the recipe for Gelato di Riso sounded perfect. I adapted it to speed the process up (the original - David Lebovitz's Rice Gelato in The Perfect Scoop - involved making the rice pudding in the oven) and to conserve the eggs a bit. I generally replace the egg yolks in his recipes with whole eggs - assuming that five yolks is the same as three whole eggs. I usually have to strain the custard to take out any small strands of cooked egg-white (although you can't in this recipe) and it probably makes the ice-cream taste slightly more 'eggy' than with just yolks - but that doesn't seem to bother anyone here. I don't want to be left with loads of egg whites to use up!

Ingredients

½ cup (100g) Arborio rice
4 cups (1 litre) whole milk
¾ cup (150g) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
Freshly grated nutmeg

Cook the rice and the sugar in 3 cups (750ml) of milk on the stove-top, for about 20 minutes or until the rice is soft. Tip the mixture into the beaten eggs then return to the heat, stirring, until it is thick and creamy. Stir in the remaining cup of milk (the original recipe calls for cream or half-and-half - but whole milk works fine), the vanilla extract and the nutmeg. (I forgot the nutmeg, but I think it would make this even better.) Allow to cool, then freeze in an ice-cream maker.

It's lovely on its own, but would probably go even better with some bottled or stewed fruit.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness! I think we're going to have to try this recipe.

Lemon verbena ice cream is on the menu for tonight.