When I was little, I knew Christmas was near when my mom’s rice pudding made an appearance. It would first appear at Thanksgiving and continue until New Years Day. My mom would give me a cup of hot pudding, yes …hot, because I couldn’t wait for it to cool down. It was the perfect combination of cream and cinnamon. For the grown ups, she would soak the raisins in hot water and dark Meyer’s Rum. Either way it was a real Christmas treat. Getting the recipe was not a treat.When I asked for the recipe, she gladly sent it. Arborio rice, cinnamon stick, cinnamon, vanilla bean, skim milk, heavy cream, sugar. That’s how she sent the recipe. (Agh!) Now, I’m calling long distance to Florida. I ask her …how much rice? Her response: "handful". “Mom, I’m 5 feet tall with small hands, you’re 5’11 with larger hands.” “…Oh” she says. We chat as she searches for measuring utensils. Finally, she finds a liquid measuring cup. I sigh and say ok, use it. She starts to measure and I hear "...well it's almost a cup". I think to myself ....I wish I had paid attention when she cooked. Ah, good old hindsight. Right? Why go through all this trouble? Well, I’ll tell you.
This month’s “Think Spice” is: cinnamon. Sunita of Sunita’s World is hosting the blog event “Think Spice …think cinnamon”. I hoping my mom’s cinnamon rice pudding will be a nice contribution. You still have time to enter; all the entries must be in by December 25, 2007. I’ll see you at the round up. ~Gigi
Cinnamon Rice Pudding
- 1 heaping cup of arborio rice.
- Cinnamon stick
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 32 ounces of skim milk (yes, skim)
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- ½ cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Place the rice, cinnamon stick, vanilla seeds, vanilla bean, skim milk, heavy cream, and sugar in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring often. Next, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Discard the vanilla bean and cinnamon stick. Stir in the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Divide the pudding into (4-6) ramekins. You can serve it warm if you’re like me or wrap them up tightly and enjoy when cooled.
