Well, I was lucky enough to find a recipe for a low fat substitute version of this Danish dessert - usually eaten during the Christmas period. However, the substitute ingredient for cream was something called "fromage frais" which I cannot get in Australia.
So what to do, what to do? Well, I've heard about numerous desserts using mascarpone cheese, which is a creamy Italian cheese, so I thought, I'll try that as a tester with a small portion, and if it doesn't work I'll have to make it with cream, and hubby will have something else for dessert.
Luckily for me, the test version worked a treat, so here is the recipe for my Aussie version of Ris a la Mande with cherry sauce.
Ris a la Mande
250 ml water
250 g arborio rice
1.4 l of full fat milk
1 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar
200 g blanched almonds (without skin)
1 vanilla pod
500 g mascarpone cheese
1) Bring the water, arborio rice and salt to the boil, and let it simmer until the water is absorbed.
2) Add the milk and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and let simmer until milk is absorbed and it has the consistency of risotto, approx. 20-30 min. Keep stirring the pot to avoid the milk burning in the pan.
3) Take the rice pudding off the heat, add sugar and let the pudding cool off.
4) Roughly chop the almonds
5) Slice open the vanilla pod, scrape out the vanilla beans and mix them in the rice pudding.
6) Mix half the mascarpone into the rice pudding until it has a creamy consistency, then add the chopped almonds and the rest of the mascarpone and stir until combined.
7) Transfer the Ris a la Mande to a serving bowl, cover with cling film, and refrigerate until serving.
Cherry Sauce - to serve over the Ris a la Mande
500 g frozen cherries (or fresh pitted)
150 g sugar
1 vanilla pod
300 ml water
2 tbs corn flour
1) Pour the cherries into a pot with the sugar, water and vanilla pod.
2) Bring to the boil, turn down the heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes
3) Stir the corn flour with a splash of water and add to the warm cherry sauce while stirring, and wait for the sauce to thicken slightly.
4) Cool down to warm temperature (around 50 degrees) and serve over the cold Ris a la Mande
You can make the Cherry Sauce in advance and cool in the fridge, and then warm it up slightly before serving.
Enjoy!
