There is hardly a nation in the world without rice pudding. From Far East to Far west, this little pudding has gained everybody’s attention and affection. As old as rice and as simple as milk, rice pudding has been a staple of Greek home cooking too, joining the Middle-Eastern league for flavourfull filling snacks. Either as breakfast or actually dessert, I love it cold and with lots of cinnamon.

There are many modern rice pudding recipes around too, some with brown rice, others with exotic fruit. Feel free to add any fruit, fresh or preserves. I normally get the richest milk I can find and if not in the mood for cinnamon, I replace it with a bit of mastic. Here are grand-ma’s basics.

Ingredients (makes 6 small bowls)

• 1 lt of milk
• 500 ml water (to cook the rice)
• 200 gr of long grain rice
• 100 gr of sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ¼ tsp salt
• ground cinnamon for dusting

How to make it:

1. Rinse your rice and cook it with a pinch of salt.
2. Place the milk in a pot with the cinnamon stick in low heat. Once you have brought the milk to the boil, remove the cinnamon stick and add the cooked rice.
3. Stir well and let it boil in low heat for approximately 7-8 minutes.
4. Add in the sugar and mix well.
5. After a couple of minutes remove from the heat, the rice pudding mix should look runny.
6. Transfer to a larger container or smaller bowls and let it set.
7. Decorate with ground cinnamon and let it set in the fridge.

Feel free to experiment with it!

from Athens with love,

Eugenia

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