Monday 2 June 2008

A Rose By Any Other Name Will Taste As Sweet

Well I asked at the end of my last post if anyone had any suggestions for what rosewater was good for, and you - you lovely bunch - were full of ideas and flavour pairings, so if roses symbolise love, consider this post a bit of a romance novel for you all.

Do not consider it a horror movie. I'm just saying; because those splashes of raspberry juice and, sort of, scarlet splatters -- I'm sorry. My food often looks like a massacre, but not always this literally.

This dessert may be of uncertain genre, but one thing I'm sure of is that the flavours taste great together (thanks everyone who suggested rose/lemon, rose/raspberry, rose/rice pudding, &c. &c.). I wanted to finish this with a sprinkle of pistachio nuts, but we had none; hence the raspberry massacre you see before your eyes. (I can't get over this. They're not even heart shaped or anything. They're bloodstain shaped. Sigh.)


This was a rice pudding recipe I found here, which intrigued me due to the lack of pudding rice in it ('BUT WHERE IS THE RICE? THIS IS MADNESS.'); apparently I find it hard to get my head around minor changes in food habit. I believe I had a similar reaction when it came to a Japanese-style cheesecake with no crust. This uses ground rice instead, which seemed pretty radical to me.

'Aha!' I cried, feeling triumphant, 'yet another culinary first! A break-through! A twist, on a time-honoured theme!'

At this point, my mother came into the kitchen and peered over my shoulder at the puddings. 'Aww,' she said. 'I used to feed you this sort of thing when you were about six months old. You've regressed!'

Once again; thank you, mother.

This is a more grown-up version of what I used to eat when I was six months old. If that appeals to you (and it should, because this is good, okay? Ignore my mum. It bears no resemblance to baby food, and has, you know, bloodstains and everything. It's at least a PG or 12A in the pudding department) give it a try.

Raspberry & Rose Rice Pudding
Adapted from here.
Makes two generous portions

55g (2oz) ground rice
15g (1/2 oz) ground almonds
80g (3 oz) caster sugar
200ml coconut milk (you could use all coconut milk; it's just that we had half a can in the fridge that needed eating)
150ml ordinary milk
50ml evaporated milk (again, we just had some in the fridge; you could use about 3 tbsp of double cream as in the original recipe. But we had none of that, and it didn't make any difference to me)
60 ml (4 tbsp) rosewater
juice of half a lemon
To garnish: Raspberries (I used frozen ones that I'd zapped in the microwave, hence the bloodstains. But meant a nice juice)/pistachio nuts/whatever.

1. In a large saucepan, combine rice flour, ground almonds, coconut milk, milk and sugar, cooking over very low heat until thickened and gently bubbly, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or whisk. If mixture becomes too thick, add incremental amounts of additional milk. Cook for another five minutes.

2. Remove from heat then stir in evaporated milk/cream, rosewater and lemon juice. Adjust sugar to taste. Pour into individual bowls or glasses. Decorate with optional garnishes. Refrigerate until cool and firm.

13 comments:

grace said...

i think this looks really delicious--blood-like raspberry ooze doesn't scare me! the pure, beatiful rice pudding compliments the lovely red quite nicely, i think. boy, i'll bet this is delicious. i'll take some of your raspberry massacre any day!

Maria♥ said...

Indigo this looks delish but I have to admit I hate rose water!

Maria
x

Anonymous said...

Ah, absolutely gorgeous blood stains. I'm wonderfully morbid that way. Send them over my way!

Rosie said...

WOW Indigo this looks delicious and just adore that blood stained look of scrummy raspberries. I have some rose water in just love that flavour like I do Turkish Delight mmmmmm... Will have to make this one soon :)

Rosie x

My Sweet & Saucy said...

That is simply gorgeous...great romance novel dessert!

Anonymous said...

What a deliciously sexy pudding! I can only imagine how it smells with the touch of rose water! Just beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

test it comm said...

I like the sound of this "rice" pudding! The vibrant red contrasting the white pudding looks really nice.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Good thing you're finding recipes to use your rosewater. A girl needs to keep busy during vacation, right?

Ginny said...

Haha!!! Great post! Looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

I think it's lovely! I love rose water in cookies too!

Susan said...

I originally made this recipe to please both my mother's love of rice pudding and my general dislike of the typically clumpy stuff. As nursery desserts go, this has a lot of exotic sophistication going for it. Thanks for the mention. Those raspberries are bloody beautiful.

Cakespy said...

Not only do the flavors sound terrific, but it's one of the more dramatic and pretty desserts I have seen in a while! Absolutely visceral!

Anonymous said...

you got me on this one. i 'have a bunch of blueberries i don't want to go to waste so that might be a good sub for me to use. great recipe.