Rice Pudding (General Arabic)

This is my hands down favorite dessert. Its simple and yet so satisfying. Another call to my mother got the following recipe. She in the meantime is wondering where she went wrong when all I call her for is recipes! I added a little twist of my own with the topping.

We should bother to change the date on the camera, don’t you think?

1 cup of cooked rice (any rice but short grain is best)

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 cup of sugar (you can do less if you want)

1 T. rose water (alternative would be orange blossom water)

For the topping

2 T. slivered blanched walnuts

1/2 tsp of cinnamin

1/2 tsp of crushed dried organic rose petals

1/2 T. butter

Once your rice is cooked, add the milk and sugar. Stir and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. You have to keep stirring. Once the pudding thickens remove from heat and add the rose water. If by chance your rice is not well cooked, then add milk in small increments until your rice is soft.

While this is cooking, melt the butter in a pan and on low heat, add the almonds, stirring until lightly browned. Keep an eye on it!

Have a small bowl with the cinnamon ready. Pour the almonds, butter and all, and mix with the cinnamon until the almonds are coated. You can add more cinnamon but I don’t like that spice to over power the rosewater.

Pour your pudding into a medium sized bowl and then decorate with the almonds. You will have liquid butter left over. Use that to decorate as well.

Now take your crushed rose petals and sprinkle them over the almonds.

Eat this dish while warm or chill for later.

Rice pudding is amazingly universal but I will always prefer this egg/cornstarch/flour free version over any more westernized recipes that have much too many ingredients for my taste.

Again, like many other dishes, its easy to turn this into a vegetarian dish, by replacing the milk for a creamier replacement-soy, coconut or almond for example.