Dessert Risotto

At school we met this guy who really loves rice.  Who ever thought someone could love something so white, and, let's face it kind of bland.  But he kept us standing out in the cold for 8 hours talking about rice.  And we ate a whole lunch of rice: comparing, contrasting, and complaining.

In all fairness to him, he's Italian, and Italian rice (risotto) is far more complex than our plain rice version.  This guy's rice is carnaroli rice, a good rice for making risotto.  He ages his for a year which makes it even better for risotto.  The rice is Acquerello, and it goes for about nine dollars a pound on amazon.

We got a couple of cans of it for free on our visit, and we're just finishing it up now.  I'm just really not a rice person.  But this time we did something different with it...dessert.

We cooked the rice just as would for risotto.  Except instead of broth, we used the milk I keep raving about from the creamery down the road.  The result proves the point that quality ingredients make all the difference in the world.  It was absolutely delicious.  The next time we're going to try brulee-ing it.

I'm beginning to love rice.

Cupcakes for Sara

These cupcakes, are a version of a birthday cake we made for a dear friend while in Italy. I call them lemon risotto cupcakes. I used Acquerello rice because the overly chatty owner gave us three cans for free on our visit. I used it to make a lemon risotto which allowed me to cut down on the amount of flour (also made of rice) used. I think the rice also allows for more moisture while having to use less oil, always a plus. The first time I made them I made a lavender icing. This time I couldn't find lavender buds so I made a kind of glaze with Amarene cherries. They are so overly sweet. I tried to cut the sweetness with lemon juice and a sprinkle of purple basil. It was especially important that these cupcakes were good because I took them to the bakery where I'll be interning. They weren't mind-blowing as I had hoped, though decent enough to still give. The picture doesn't quite do them justice.