RICE MILK BLANCMANGE WITH STRAWBERRY AND CARDAMOM SAUCE

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Never give up. I almost did about this dessert but then I thought 'no, let's see what happens' and I'm really happy I did! I have been thinking about heart healthy desserts for several weeks now and as fruit is the obvious first choice, I wanted to make something different as well, I wanted to make a real pudding (and not just a pudding in the British English sense of the word)! So how could I make a nice one without using cream and full fat milk? When my eyes fell on some rice milk when I was doing my grocery shopping I just knew the answer: a biancomangiare or blancmange made of rice milk. I just never got around to do it and when I finally did, I tried to put one of them on a plate (help! is there a better term for this, I mean to take out something wobbly from the form it's in?) too early so it just collapsed so I put the rest of them back into the fridge because I didn't want to see them. I wanted to forget and so I did. For about 24 hours. My oldest daughter asked what they were and I mumbled grumpily "An experiment" and after that she asked no more.



But yesterday I thought that maybe, maybe they weren't so bad after all and that maybe, maybe I should give them a chance and as I had some fresh strawberries I made a kind of sauce to go with the small blancmange. Now here I am really risking to be blasphemous but what a resurrection! Back with a revenge! So here they are, heart healthy rice milk blancmange with strawberry and cardamom sauce. And now it's your turn to come up with a dessert for The Heart of the Matter of this month, Sunday's the last day but I'm sure that Joanna can stretch the deadline for a couple of hours if you need a little more time to make something! Send your entries to joannacary AT ukonline DOT co DOT uk.





RICE MILK BLANCMANGE WITH STRAWBERRY AND CARDAMOM SAUCE

1 liter (1000 ml) / 33.81 fl oz rice milk
100 g / 3.5 oz blanched almonds
15 g / 0.53 oz gelatin
1 tsp vanilla extract
(sugar) the rice milk I bought was very sweet in itself, no sugar was declared as an ingredient so I suppose it's naturally sweet and therefore I didn't use any sugar.
Fresh strawberries
A couple of pinches of ground cardamom
Honey of a mild and runny type

- Put the gelatin to soak in some water. Follow the instructions for the type you use.
- Chop the almonds finely or run them in a blender.
- Heat up the rice milk together with the almonds and then drain the milk into a bowl (don't throw away the almonds, I used them in a cake I will post about in a couple of days), add the vanilla extract and then the gelatin while its still warm. Stir really well and when it has cooled down a little, put it into the forma you want to use, many small or one big.
- Leave to jellify for several hours.
- When ready to be served, you chop the strawberries finely and mix them with the cardamom and a little honey.
- Spoon the sauce on top of the puddings and serve!