Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Creamy Chocolate Risotto




Ingredients:
1 litre milk
15 ml cocoa powder
100 g / 125 ml Tastic Risotto Rice
pinch of salt
30 ml sugar
30 ml butter
5 ml vanilla essence
15 ml brandy or mocha or coffee liquer (optional)
100 g dark chocolate, scraped into coarse shavings
250 ml cream, whipped until stiff

Optional Ingredients:
50 ml flaked or slivered almonds, lightly toasted
30 ml glace cherries, finely diced

To Serve and Garnish:
reserved whipped cream
reserved chocolate shavings
reserved almonds
2 glace cherries, quartered (optional)

Method:
Place the milk, cocoa, rice and salt in a heavy-based saucepan and bring to boil, stirring. Reduce heat, cover partly and cook over very low heat for 30-40 minutes or until the rice is tender and the mixture has thickened.
Stir in the sugar, butter, vanilla essence and brandy or liquer if used and cool to room temperature.
Reserve about 50 ml of the chocolate shavings and 15 ml of the flaked almonds for garnish. Add the chocolate and if used, the almonds and cherries to the rice mixture and stir to combine.
Reserve half of the whipped cream for garnish and fold the remaining cream into the rice mixture. Spoon into a serving bowl or into stemmed glasses and decorate with cream and chocolate shavings or curls and reserved almonds and cherries if used