The Best Rice Pudding.

People ask me for this recipe more than any other, which is surprising because it's the simplest dish, and everyone has their own version, and they're all delightful. Still, everyone who tries this one says it is the best rice pudding they have ever had. They get excited about it, and rice pudding is honestly not usually an exciting dessert. 

Three easy steps make this so rich and delicate you will want it for lunch boxes and fancy dinner parties both. First, use almost no rice. Give it room to swell, be tender to the bite, and swim around in the milky pudding. Too much rice and it is dense and heavy.  Second- salt the rice while it is swelling in the simmering water- you won't taste the salt, but you'll taste rice, and a balanced flavor with the sweet milk. Third- add heavy cream at very end. It makes all the difference (and there is so much water in the rice that it will not be overwhelmingly rich).

We will need:

4 T/ 40 g short-grain rice- like sushi rice or risotto rice

1/8- 1/4 tsp salt

450 ml/ 2 C water

1 liter/ 4 C whole milk

150-200 g/ 3/4 - 1 C sugar (use the lesser amount if you will be making the syrup)

200 ml/ scant 1 C heavy cream

60 g/ 1/2 C cornstarch

a vanilla bean, or good vanilla extract (easy to make your own!) to taste

Put the rice and the salt in a large pot with the water- it will look like too little rice and way too much water, don't worry- and simmer on low heat until the rice swells and absorbs all the water. The rice should be as full and soft as possible, but without falling apart.

This takes 20 - 30 minutes. Add 3/4 of the milk, and all of the sugar and simmer until it is quite hot. Meanwhile blend the rest of the cold milk with the cornstarch (this is called a "slurry"). Add this to the hot sweet milk and rice, whisking gently all the while, until it comes to a full boil and thickens. Pour in the cream, blending gently:

Add vanilla to taste:

and pout into individual bowls, or one large one. Serve warm, or cool, or chilled, with cinnamon if you like.

But, if you want to turn it into something a little more exotic, Try this:

200 g/ 1 C sugar

1/2 C water

rose water to taste- 1-2 Tablespoons 

a spoonful of corn syrup or glucose if you have it (prevents crystallization)

a drop of red or pink coloring, or a few drops of pomegranate juice

a few pistachios for garnish 

Pour the sugar into the middle of a pot, and surround it with the water (so that no sugar crystals cling to the sides of the pan). Bring to a boil gently, add the corn syrup, and then the rose water, and the faintest toothpick dab (I color a shot of syrup and add it back to control the intensity) of color or a drop of pomegranate juice.

The delicate color of the syrup is beautiful against the snowy cream, and the milky richness of the pudding holds up against the exotic perfume. A couple of green pistachios set it off.

Note: When I am serving the pudding with the rose water syrup, I sometimes flavor it with half a bay leaf rather than vanilla- it gives an elusive masculine perfume, and plays up the distinctly feminine fragrance of the syrup. Some crushed cardamon pods will give this simple pudding some exotic mystery.