Raise Your Glass!

Pasta di Riso Dolce, con Latte di Cocco, Mirtilli Rosse e Cumquat

Sweet Coconut Rice Noodles with Cranberries & Cumquats

These dainty little creations need to be dedicated to my online friend and wonderfully talented artist Michael Schwarzmüller, who created these delightful glasses. Although they are produced in large series, each one of these delicate, feather-light glasses is indeed hand blown and then decorated with colored accents- amazing!

When I received the parcel in the post, I have to admit that I thought "hmm... someone has sent you an empty box!"- so light are these precious little things! And yes, they are rather small- before you think that I over-indulged in the dessert department! But at the same time- the little dish that I put together was so delicious that I may well have had a second serving anyway!

Being a fan of rice pudding, I thought that I would make a similar dish using rice noodles. To prepare them, I first soaked them in warm water, as one would when preparing them normally, in this case all I needed was one handful to make these 4 little servings. In the meantime, brought about a coffee mug full of milk to the boil in which I added a little vanilla, a hint of cinnamon and a light grating of ginger.

After having soaked for 5-6 minutes, I added the noodles to the milk, along with a 2-3 tablespoons of coconut milk- I think that any more would be a little overpowering- but of course you can feel free to add more if you wish!

As usual, I used a little Stevia to sweeten mine, but you can use sugar or honey, and I let them simmer away, stirring occasionally, for just 5-6 minutes, until they were soft, creamy, sweet an delicious! I let mine cool off in this case and then refrigerated them, but this would surely have tasted equally delicious served hot... well, actually, I know it as a fact, as I snook a few bites in whilst preparing it!

To make it more attractive and tastier still, I decided I needed a fruity ingredient to counterpoint the sweetness of the noodles- and what could have been better at this time of year than my cranberry preserves? Problem solved! Oh, I could have cooked something up- but really, a favorite jam is all you need for this- especially as it only took one teaspoonful per serving! But wait! I am jumping the gun a little- I need to tell you how to get this served up without it sloshing all over and against the edges of those glasses, so that it still looks pretty! :-)

What I did was to first place one of those serving rings into the glass- the kind that you use for shaping rice or mashed potatoes with when serving... then spooning the noodles into the ring, so that they didn't touch the glass until I lifted the ring back out... easy when you know how!

Ok- now I was ready to enjoy- cranberries on top, cumquat slices, a sprig of mint and not only dids it look pretty as a picture, but it was also a little explosion of wonderful flavor too! Although I think I need to ask Michael if he can send me some larger glasses next time... it was really delicious! I hope that you approve my friend!