Recipe: Rice pudding

I love a rich and creamy rice pudding.  It can be by itself with a bit of fruit, or decoratively used as a plate garnish for a more elaborate dessert.  I like this recipe because it feels very "natural" to me since it uses arborio (risotto) rice and therefore doesn't need any cornstarch since the rice has plenty of its own.  If you wish, sushi rice is an easy substitution.

You will need:

250g        arborio rice
375g        heavy cream
1350g      milk (homo)
165g        sugar
   1           vanilla bean scraped

Method:

  - set your oven to 350 F
  - set a pot of water on to boil
  - combine milk, cream, sugar and vanilla in a pot, bring  it up to simmer, then take it off the heat
  - blanch the rice in the water for 3 minutes, then strain
  - add the rice to the milk mixture in a heavy pot
  - cover and place in the oven for 30 - 45 minutes until rice is cooked
  - spread out into a larger pan (or casserole dish) to cool before storing/serving
  - if you like it a bit looser, just add a little milk once it's cold just before serving