Rice Pudding

I love porridge of all persuasions. One of the best I've had is rice pudding, which is really just lugaw with cinnamon, cream and brown sugar. I think the trick is the brown sugar and cinnamon combination. It always works.

I've never had rice pudding when I was a kid, so I don't have those warm childhood memories associated to it. But what the hell? This is not about childhood memories, is it? I mean, I never even actually saw what a real cinnamon bark looks like until high school. But if you think that's sad, well, I know someone who didn't even KNOW that cinnamon came from bark. I dunno, maybe she thought that it came from heaven or something. Kidding. Or maybe not.

So I made rice pudding today, and I hope you will soon too!

For rice pudding, you will need:

1 can of heavy cream
a few pieces of cinnamon bark
-You can use cinnamon powder, but just like pepper, it tastes a world better if you grate it fresh.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
-egg is optional, it will make the pudding bind a bit better. But if you're using malagkit, there really is no need
1/2 vanilla bean or a few drops vanilla extract
-vanilla pods are available in upscale supermarkets like Rustan's or Rockwell and they taste so much better than that lame liquid flavoring. But it's expensive (the pods I mean) and buying it for rice pudding is weird. I only have leftover vanilla pods because I made leche flan and panna cotta for Christmas eve dinner, so I used them.
1 cup malagkit rice

Procedure

1. Wash the rice and add around two cups of water to it. Add half the can of cream and mix it even before putting it on the stove. Once it's all mixed, put it on the stove and heat it up, stirring every now and then to make sure that non of the grains stick.

2. Once the mixture becomes sticky and the rice begins to cook, grate maybe a teaspoon of cinnamon into the pot and stir.

3. Add the remaining cream after simmering for around 10 minutes. Stir to make sure it does not curdle.

4. Add the sugar. Add more cinnamon if you like.

5. Stir until you get the consistency you like. I like mine real thick, like biko.

6. Stir in the vanilla while it's still a bit soupy and allow the rice to cook completely and set.



You can serve this hot or cold but it's gorgeous hot with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Get the good stuff, spending a bit on Haagen Dazs once in a while won't hurt.