Black rice

This is a short-grain rice that tastes mildly nutty, similar in its cooking behaviour to brown rice. This slightly sticky rice is great in desserts – creamy, yielding and dramatically occult. It works fantastically in my Black Rice & Coconut Sorbet. The fact that it’s also known as ‘forbidden rice’ makes it instantly enticing. (‘Forbidden’ to anyone who was not a Chinese noble … which takes the charm out of it a little.)