Rocket & Roses Incan Berry Brown Rice Dessert (vegan & gluten-free)

Rocket & Roses Kitchen Play List:

Sade ~ Like A Tattoo
Glen Campbell ~ Sadly Beautiful
P!nk ~ Family Portrait
Ellie Goulding ~ Love Me Like You Do
INXS ~ Mystify
Black Stone Cherry ~ Blind Man
The Cardigans ~ Give Me Your Eyes
Chely Wright ~ What If We Fly
The Dodge Brothers ~ Died And Gone To Hell
Joan Jett ~ You Don't Own Me
Bruce Springsteen ~ Lonesome Day
The Eagles ~ New York Minute
Bree Sharp ~ Show Me
Beth Hart ~ Heaven Look Down

During my recent recipe testing for my posting for the Suma Bloggers Network I had the opportunity to try out some of Suma's Dried Incan Berries. To be honest just the name had me intrigued and I had no idea what they would be like or how I would use them. I just had to have them and back when I used to do a Mystery Item posting each week they would've fitted the remit perfectly. So I ordered them with great curiosity and awaited their arrival.

Who knew? Incan berries turned out to be dried Physalis! And thankfully I love fresh Physalis very much and greatly enjoy their sharp sweetness and sticky juices. I make a dessert of deeply dark chocolate pudding pots with fresh physalis on the side. The mixture of bitter dark chocolate with the fresh tart sweetness of the physalis is a heaven sent combination. Its a very popular dinner party treat...

I went through many different ideas when thinking of a way to use them. It was a cold day and raining relentlessly and I had a large amount of cooked brown rice. So the thoughts of a creamy rice pudding with a tart sauce swirled through it won the day. However I didn't want a stodgy, sugar laden affair so I used unsweetened almond milk to cook my pre-cooked brown rice in. I added 1 tbsp of agave to sweeten the bubbling goodness and for me that was sweetened enough. For the Incan berries I soaked them in freshly boiled filtered water with strips of lemon zest..the yellow skin and not the white pith. The longer you can leave them to soak the better but I don't think they will ever completely plump up but for this recipe that isn't necessary as they get blitzed until almost smooth to make the sauce. I was intending to have this as a warm dessert but Ann (pal and kitchen bitch assistant) and I both agreed on that day that a chilled rice pudding was called for. 

The results from this testing were a creamy without heaviness, sweet but not overly so, comforting textured, very much enjoyable tangy sauced pudding. Ann loved it and took all leftovers home to enjoy later. She is a total pudding addict. 

The pudding was a delight to eat chilled and warmed through. But I also have plans to try making a noodle sauce with the remaining Incan berries. They are a very interesting product indeed and I thank Suma for bringing them to my attention..

 

Rocket & Roses Incan Berry Brown Rice Dessert

Rocket & Roses Incan Berry Brown Rice Dessert  Makes 3
(Original recipe from the Rocket & Roses Vegan Kitchen)

1/2 cup dried Incan berries 
1/2 cup freshly boiled filtered water
2 strips of lemon zest

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 3/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tbsp Suma organic agave syrup

Place the dried berries in a bowl with the lemon peel and then cover with the freshly boiled water. Leave to soak for approx 1 hour...the longer the better but an hour will do. Set to one side.

Place the cooked brown rice into a saucepan and stir in the almond and agave syrup until thoroughly combined. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce the heat to very low and continue to simmer the mix, stirring often, until it has thickened. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. 

Once the berries have plumped up (they won't completely rehydrate) remove the lemon strips and then place the berries and remaining soaking water into a blender. Blitz until you have a jam like consistency. Separate approx 4 tbsp of the jam and set to one side. Stir the remaining jam into the cooled rice pudding until evenly distributed. Spoon into individual serving dishes/glasses and then top with a scoop of the remaining jam. Serve chilled. 

Rocket & Roses Incan Berry Brown Rice Dessert - Gratuitous foodie shot for the pudding lovers out there.

 Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a lovely day..

~Red~ 

NB: This is my creation. I have no problem with you using it or sharing it. I simply ask that you give credit where it's due and link it back to this posting. Many thanks..~R~