Riso Nero di Venere

[StevenC]

During a lunchtime walk, I happened to find a store that sold small bags of black Italian rice called Riso Nero di Venere. I had never encountered it before--I'm just familiar with the black rice of Southeast Asia.

The label says the rice was produced in the area of Vicenza... I'll have to check my cookbooks from the Veneto this evening.

Has anyone eaten or cooked with riso nero before? Can it be prepared as a risotto, or does the starch structure of the grains make it unsuitable for this method? Will it exude a dark purple color like Asian black rice?

Many thanks!

[divina]

I have cooked the RIso Venere from Antica Pila Vecia di Ferron, from Isola della Scala.

Usually here it is served cooked, and molded into a form, then unmolded onto the plate with a tomato sauce with seafood.

I will see if I can find you a recipe, I am friends with Gabriele Ferron.

[Maureen B. Fant]

Volpetti sells it ready cooked with diced cooked vegetables, which I like very much. I wouldn't think it suitable for risotto, but it's good in pilafy-type dishes. I bought a box at the supermarket (apologies to Ferron) and made a shrimp recipe more or less off the box, which was quite good but tasted more American than Italian.

[StevenC]

Thank you both for your suggestions.

I'm going to try a few ideas this weekend, including a sweet dish. I was thinking of making a rice custard with the riso nero and some candied orange peel, cutting it up into squares and deep-frying them.

[divina]

one point-- much like wild rice.. boil it first to cook... about 40 minutes, and then finish it off to flavor it.

We do a rice fritter here in florence, rice cooked in milk and lemon peel with sugar, then when cooled added eggs , first the yolks, flour,baking powder, then fold in the whites.

Yummy!

[hathor]

Sorry, I'm checking in late on this one...but Judy is correct...treat it like a wild rice. We got a bunch of it directly from a mill, and it's a bit 'touchy' to work with.

[legourmet]

Volpetti sells it ready cooked with diced cooked vegetables, which I like very much. I wouldn't think it suitable for risotto, but it's good in pilafy-type dishes. I bought a box at the supermarket (apologies to Ferron) and made a shrimp recipe more or less off the box, which was quite good but tasted more American than Italian.

←

It is suitable for risotto. I've done it twice. The result was o.k. But you have to cook it much longer than the normal risotto. I've used the Venere to make a dessert like some sort of the German "Milchreis" .

"Schwarzer Milchreis"

a recipe by Otto Koch, served at the Unicef Gala in Munich.

serves 6

75 g butter

250 g Venere rice

1/2 liter Riesling

50 g honey

1/4 liter whipping cream

3 vinyard peaches

100 g crème fraîche

2 Tsp peach liquor

Let melt butter, add rice and stir. Pour 1/2 of the wine and add honey. Stir frequently and add the remaining wine from time to time like you do cooking a risotto. Let cook for 30 minutes at low heat. Pour whipping cream and let cook another 15 minutes until the rice is "al dente". Season and let cool down. Peal peaches, remove the stone and cut into small cubes. Throw peach cubes into the crème fraîche, mix and season with the liquor. Serve rice in glases and garnish with the peach compote.

Edited August 29, 2007 by legourmet (log)

[Saborosa]

Hi

I've been given some Riso Venere Integrale, Ferron brand, by my local Italian wine merchant. It's apparently the "first european black rice".

It seems to take a long time to cook - about 45 minutes boiled. I want to know if anyone's had/used this rice before, and how it is when cooked - what recipes would you suggest using it for?

Thanks!

Kirsten

(Cross-posted in cooking forum)

[Pontormo]

Kirsten, I have no experience, but if you move from page 1 to page 2 in this regional forum, you'll find a topic begun by StephenC (? not sure of name) earlier this summer on Venetian black. There have been other queries in the past of a similar nature, so it might be worthwhile to conduct a search.

Edited September 14, 2007 by Pontormo (log)

[divina]

Funny you should ask.yesterday in cooking class, I had Shauna,the "Gluten Free girl" as a guest with her new hubby, the Chef.

of course it was a gluten free lunch.

I tweeked a favorite recipe for a farro salad and used Riso Venere from Ferron.

We parboiled the rice in salted water, for about 30 minutes then drained and continued with the recipes as for Chicchi.

There is a link to the recipe on my blog

enjoy!

it was fabulous, chewy and full of flavor.

It needed nothing .

I would have loved to had some salmon or shrimp, grilled scallops, for color as well as flavor.