White Chocolate and Cardamom Rice Pudding with Rose and Raspberry Sauce

I rarely eat white chocolate on its own as I find it very sweet and just not as enjoyable as a good milk chocolate, but I cook with it quite often. I had been thinking of making a white chocolate cheesecake when I came across this rice pudding recipe and I am glad I changed my plans as this made the most gorgeous creamy dessert.  I have taken my recipe from one I found on the epicurious recipe web site and have only adjusted it a little to reduce the sugar and use whole cardamom pods, not ground spice.

The syrup I have served with this is a mixture of rose petal jam and sieved raspberry puree which goes very well with the cardamom flavours but the rice is pretty good on its own and I think all manner of fruit syrups and compotes would go well with this.

For the Rice Pudding
a half cup of round grain rice (I just use a rissotto rice for puddings)
a third cup of milk
a half cup of whipping cream
3 whole green cardamom pods
1tbs white sugar
85g good quality white chocolate (the Lidl 200g bars are very good value)

• Place the rice, sugar, milk, 3 whole cardamom pods and cream in a saucepan and bring up to a simmer.
• Continue to simmer very gently for 30-45 minutes; cooking time will vary with the type of rice you are using so start checking after 20-25 minutes and if it is getting a little dry add in a tablespoon or two of water.
• Stop cooking once the rice is tender.
• Take the pan off the heat and gently stir in the white chocolate.
• Check for sweetness and add extra sugar to taste.
• Remove the three cardamom pods and discard them.

To Make the Sauce
The quantities below will just make a small amount of sauce but you can scale up if you think you might like this served with other things too.

3 tbs sieved raspberry puree
2 tbs of rose petal jam

Stir the raspberry puree and rose petal jam well together. I kept the jam as it was from the jar but if you want to remove any 'bits' from the sauce you might want to sieve out any rose petal pieces.

I was able to glean a few autumn raspberries from the garden but you could just as easily use pre-frozen raspberries. I don't like raspberry pips so I always lightly cook  (usually in the microwave) and sieve raspberries before adding them to sauces.

This Autumn Raspberry variety is Polka and it has produced lovely large fruits.

My rose petal jam came from a middle-east food store and it has a rather more syrupy than set jelly texture, so using it in cooking has been more successful than spreading it on toast!

Finally to serve you might like to sprinkle a few chopped unsalted pistachio nuts on for colour and texture.

I like the rice to be served just warm and to pour a small puddle of sauce into the middle.

The quantities will just serve four people but if you sneak too many tasters while you are making it you may only have enough to serve three. I found the rice to be very moreish and had consumed quite a lot by the time it actually got dished up.

I am submitting this recipe to the September challenge of Choclette's We Should Cocoa blog spot as the theme this month is to cook up a dish that combines jam and chocolate. Choclette's  Chocolate Log Blog web site has a wonderful selection of recipes and if you like rose flavouring you will find several good ideas for using it in her recipe collection.