Food in Unusual Colours

I love food that comes in unusual colours; particularly bold, startling hues.
I was enamoured with Black Sesame Seeds when I first saw them used, on a fellow food bloggers site, many months ago. I also love the contrast, the pop-art confliction of black with yellow.
I fell in love with yet another Rick Stein recipe over the weekend. It wasn’t for purely aesthetic reasons that I was hypnotised by the recipe, but I won’t lie: looks played a huge role in it.

There are certain puddings that are like big, warm, enveloping blankets of love and comfort. They kiss you on your forehead at night with vanilla scented lips and tuck you in with creamy, gentle hands.

In particular, to me, Rice Pudding will always be that dish. My mother has made Rice Pudding for as long as I can remember and no one makes it quite as well as she. She doesn’t use Vanilla or cream or fancy sugars. Just milk, pudding rice and granulated sugar. I always stir in a rosy dollop of strawberry jam into my bowlful and pour extra milk over it, to cool it off so I can eat it quicker. And then, later on, I eat the cold leftovers straight from the dish using the serving spoon.
I have made several variations on the Rice Pudding theme: Nigella Lawsons Stovetop Rice Pudding, which is like a sweet Risotto and perfect for quick-fixers, chocolate Rice Pudding which really does live up to its name, and now this: Black Rice Pudding with Mango Sorbet.

I know. It seems like a startling digression from the nursery Rice Pudding I so love, and it is. However, I had a bag of Nanjing Black Rice that had just the right amount left in it, a couple of Mangos that were refusing to ripen and a powerful craving for something sweet but different.
I made the Sorbet on Sunday morning. It was incredibly simple, much more so than a custard based ice cream which requires patience and a small degree of dexterity on the part of the cook. Sorbet merely requires the boiling up of some sugar syrup which is then cooled and mixed together with the fruit of your choice. Freeze and poke the forming Sorbet around every hour or so to stop the dreaded ice crystals forming.

Unfortunately, my Mango sorbet was not as canary yellow as I would have hoped, due in no small part to the unripeness of it. However, it was full of flavour and very sweet. You could use tinned mango puree too.

The Rice Pudding I made for dessert yesterday. It is as simple to make as a regular rice pud: milk, rice, sugar and long, gentle cooking. The only slight difference was the addition of some finely chopped fresh ginger. According to Rick Stein, this is a ‘Fusion’ style pudding, invented in Australia, the pioneers of this terribly trendy type of food. A drizzle of cold coconut milk is poured over the hot rice when it is cooked, and it is then topped with an almost fluorescent (or, in my case, not) globe of the Mango Sorbet.

But that rice! Nanjing Black Rice, from the Coastal region of China, is unmilled rice. Only the outer ‘husk’ is black, not the grain itself, which is why it immediately turns any liquid it is cooked in a rich, dark aubergine colour. When it cooks, the grain splits and it resembles overcooked easy cook rice (except black), but instead of having a mushy texture, it has a delicious nutty bite and a rich, Basmati-like flavour. It does not take as long as Wild Rice to cook, and it is great served hot or cold. In the US it is also known as Chinese Black Rice or Forbidden Rice.

Served this way, as a sweet, it is very dense and requires a necessary drizzle of cream or coconut milk (but what good Rice Pudding doesn’t?) to moisten it, and quite a large amount of sugar to compliment the strong rice flavour without masking it under a veil of saccharine. Brown Sugar or Demerara is perfect.

Of course, the Mango Sorbet is entirely optional. Vanilla Ice Cream would be great, as would a tart, fruity Ice Cream like Raspberry. You could just serve it with some freshly chopped exotic fruits. Just don’t forget the cream!

If you want to stun your guests and/or your taste buds, here’s the recipe:

BLACK RICE PUDDING serves 4-6

(taken from Rick Steins More Food Heroes)

Ingredients:

300g Nanjing Black Rice

1.5 Pints Milk (the recipe requested full fat but I used skimmed)

2.5 pints Water (but I found this to be a little too much so I recommend using maybe only 2 pints and adding more if necessary)

10g Finely Chopped Fresh Ginger

5g Butter - optional

250g Brown Sugar

Some Cream or Coconut Milk to Serve

METHOD:

Place the milk, water, ginger and rice in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and turn down to a low heat. Simmer for an hour and a half.

Ten minutes before the cooking time is up, add the sugar. Stir well to dissolve and taste. Does it need more sugar?

Serve in large bowls with cream or coconut milk poured over.

Mango Puree is purely optional but really yummy.

Note: this picture doesn't show the cream. At this point Paul said "no, no cream" so we omitted that until we tried it. Then it was "yes, yes cream".