Coconut Risotto with Honey Mango

Photo: Monica Little

Ingredients

1 box of Arborio Rice

2 cans of coconut milk

7 honey mangoes (ripened) DESCRIPTION OF

1 vanilla bean, halved

1 cup Granulated sugar (possibly more, to taste)

3 tablespoons butter, unsalted

1 cup of whole almonds

Salt

Preparation

Place the mango on one of its broad sides on a cutting board. Cut the tiniest sliver off one thin end so that when turned onto the cut side it sits nice and tall on a flat surface. Looking down at the mango (a thin side staring back up at you) slice down slightly off-center so that you cut off a nice lobe of fruit and skin, just barely grazing the pit if done really well. Holding the lobe of fruit in the palm of your hand, VERY CAREFULLY, score lines one way then the other into the flesh creating x’s all through; cutting down to but not through the skin. Scoop out the cut flesh with a spoon, into a bowl, so that the chunks and any juice fall into the bowl.

Sprinkle the mango chunks with about 1/8 cup granulated sugar and ¼ cup of water. Scrape the seeds from half the vanilla bean onto the mango mixture and mix everything together, including the scraped half of vanilla bean. Set aside for later.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl toss the almonds with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt. Roast for 5 minutes, making sure not to burn! Once cooled, roughly chop the almonds and set aside.

Open both cans of coconut milk and empty into a saucepot. Add ½ cup of the granulated sugar and scrape the other half of the vanilla bean in (add the empty pod as well). Whisk to combine and heat on medium until it’s a smooth mixture and the sugar has dissolved. Add more sugar if you want a sweeter dessert. Keep warm on very low heat.

Add the butter to a large, straight edged sautee pan and heat on medium until melted completely. Add all of the Arborio rice and gently stir nonstop in order to coat the rice with the melted butter. DO NOT LET THE RICE STICK TO THE PAN OR BURN.

Begin adding the warm sweetened coconut milk, ladle-full by ladle-full, continuing to cook on medium-low heat and stirring (GENTLY) constantly. The rice will begin to soften and when you run out of coconut milk, pour some warm water into the same saucepot and ladle that in to finish the rice cooking process. You want the risotto to be al dente but not crunchy.

Pour the cooked risotto into a long shallow dish so that it can spread out, and not overcook! Pile the mango mixture along the center, making sure to remove the empty vanilla pod. Then top with the chopped almonds. ENJOY!