Recipe: Italian Milk Risotto with Cherry Sorbet

During the cooking demo with Chef Stefano Merlo at Favola, Le Meridien KL, he showed us how to make 3 dishes.

As promised, here is the recipe for the delicious dessert that he prepared for us - milk risotto with cherry sorbet. You can find more photos of the cooking demo by clicking here.

Ingredients (makes 4)
For the milk risotto:
100g carnaroli rice
500ml milk
100g milk powder
50ml cream
45g sugar
1/2 vanilla bean

For the cherry sorbet:
175g seedless cherry
200ml water
80g sugar
12 pcs cherry pedicles

1. Soak the rice in water for 2 hours and then drain.

2. Bring the milk, cream, milk powder, sugar and vanilla bean to the boil. Once boiled, pour in the rice and cook at low heat. Stir continuously til rice softens (around 20 minutes).

3. Once cooked, the liquid will be absorbed into the rice. If it's too thick, add some more milk. Cool the mixture down and refridgerate the rice - the rice tastes better after being refridgerated for at least 24 hours.

4. For the cherry sorbet, boil the water and sugar until it becomes a syruppy consistency. Place the seedless cherries in a pacojet container and cover with syrup. Place the container in the freezer and freeze at -19C. Run the pacojet to obtain the sorbet and rest it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

5. Pour 3 spoonful of cold rice in a cold serving plate (the consistency must be similar to a creamy risotto). Take 3 scoops of cherry sorbet with a small ice scoop and place it on the top of the rice. Place cherry pedicle on each cherry sorbet and serve immediately.

Note: A Pacojet costs approx. USD$4,000 hence an alternative if you do not have this machine is to use your ice cream maker or buy from store. Vanilla ice cream will go very well with the milk risotto.