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.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 10 of 11 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 10 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 1 cup cooked (158g) white | 206 |
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Orange | 1 medium (131g) | 62 |
| Peach | 1 medium (150g) | 59 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Wine | 2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml) | 25 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Peppermint | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 6 ripe peaches, halved
- 6 tablespoons caster sugar
- ½ stick cinnamon
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- 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