Gatnabour (Rice Pudding) with Peaches and Pistachios

4 years ago

Back in March, The Peach Truck, a Nashville-based company that delivers fresh sweet Georgia peaches from small family farms in the south across America, reached out to The Armenian Kitchen.

Their representative, Julia, discovered our website and ‘loved’ it. She also noticed a post I’d written on Peach Sorbet that mentions peach season.

Julia said that they’d recently released an in-depth blog post when to expect peaches to be in season, giving insight on harvest time by state and how to tell when they’re ripe.

She not only asked if I’d be interested in adding the link as an additional resource, but offered to ship me some peaches as soon as the pickings were ripe. I could hardly refuse an offer like that!

Lo-and-behold, a box of sweet, juicy peaches arrived a few days ago. There were 13 peaches in all, each packed snuggly in soft, spongy compartments so as not to get bruised in transit.

My husband, Doug, was in the mood for Gatnabour (Armenian Rice Pudding) so I thought why not make some and top it with these incredibly tasty peaches?

So, that’s just what I did!

By the way, The Peach Truck website offers an array of peachy-recipes, too. You’ll want to check those out.

Rice Pudding (Gatnabour) with Peaches and Pistachio Nuts

Rich, creamy rice pudding enhanced with sweet, diced peaches and crunchy pistachio nuts.

Course Dessert

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 15

Total Time 1 30

Servings

Ingredients

1 cup water
¾ cup short grain rice

Pudding ingredients:

4 cups milk warm, but not hot
pre-cooked rice As mentioned in the first step below.
½ cup granulated sugar
a pinch salt
2 tsp. lemon zest optional

Toppings:

2 cups diced fresh peaches
¼ cup unsalted pistachio nuts chopped
ground cinnamon optional

Instructions

Pre-Cooking the Rice:

Bring 1 cup water to a boil in a 4-quart pot. Stir in the ¾ cup of short grain rice. Cover the pot; reduce heat to low and cook until water is absorbed – about 15 minutes. Make sure all liquid is absorbed, but that rice doesn’t burn or stick to bottom of pot. Rice will be a bit ‘al dente’. Remove rice from pot and place it in a bowl; set aside.
Wash and dry the pot before going on to the next step.

Preparing the Rice Pudding:

Add milk to the same 4-quart pot used in the first step. Heat milk until it is warm, but not boiling.
Add the al dente rice to the warm milk and cook, uncovered, on low to medium heat for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently. As the milk begins to evaporate the mixture should be thickening.
Stir in the salt, sugar, and lemon zest; cook for 15- 20 minutes more and continue to stir. The mixture should begin to resemble thickened rice pudding.
Remove pot from heat. Pour pudding into a bowl; allow to cool at room temperature.
If serving warm, place pudding in individual bowls. If serving chilled, place pudding in a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the pudding’s surface to prevent a ‘skin’ from forming on top.