TWD: Arborio Rice Pudding

When I lived in Houston I was really, really lucky because I had two wonderful kitchens to cook in. My mom's kitchen is a dream -- tons of counter space, fabulous appliances, and pretty much every amenity that a cook would ever want. I cooked in that kitchen all of the time. And then, because I am so lucky (read: spoiled) my sister and I lived in an adorable little doll house with a completely updated kitchen to boot. I didn't cook as much there because I had 2 jobs and for part of the time I was in school so most meals were takeout. I did most of my cooking at my mom and dad's house on the weekends. However, I always had grand plans for cooking at our little doll house (and there were some pretty fantastic dinner parties there) and I amassed quite a collection of staples in my pantry. My sister is a super busy medical student and she eats most of her meals at school so I knew that all of my carefully selected pantry ingredients would languish on those shelves without me there. This is how I ended up with 3 large totebags full of random pantry items when I moved. Dudley was so confused by this:

(D): "Jessica, you know that you have three bags of food here. Do you want me to load these onto the truck?"
(J): "Yes, please."
(D): "You know that they have grocery stores in D.C., right?"

So, this is how I ended up with all of my wonderful arborio and carnaroli rice up here in D.C. with me. Not that I couldn't get it here, of course I could but it amuses me to think that I brought it from Houston (not to mention that I think I purchased it about 2 or 3 years ago! Not to worry, it's been sealed up tightly!) and now it's finally being used.

This week, TWD was Arborio Rice Pudding. I love risotto and I love rice pudding so I was pretty excited about this. An added bonus, rice pudding is not that labor-intensive so this was a nice change from rugelach and kugelhopf. I should say, I'm not a risotto expert, but in college I made risotto at least once a week without fail. I definitely reached the point where measuring was no longer necessary and the whole process was more about looks and feel during the cooking process. I loved risotto (and still do) because it's so versatile, it can be sweet or savory and you can add anything you want. My favorite experiment was a granny smith apple risotto with black pepper and parmesan cheese -- molto bene! All this to say, I looked at the recipe and thought "1/4 c of rice is NOTHING -- there is no way that is going to make enough rice pudding for this to be worth my while" (I wanted leftovers). So, I made my recipe with a cup of carnaroli rice and about 4 cups of milk (maybe a little more). I also increased the sugar and used vanilla bean that I steeped in the hot milk rather than extract because I think that the little flecks of vanilla bean are so pretty in the white rice.

Verdict: the first night I thought that it was just so-so. It was good but it was just missing something. The second night I reheated it (I like my rice pudding warm -- I'm not sure if this is a faux pas or not) and sprinkled mini chocolate chips on it and it was so much better. I didn't want chocolate rice pudding but I thought that a little chocolate mixed in was just right. I will say, Nigella Lawson has a recipe for a quick arborio rice pudding that you make just like you make risotto (except that you stir the rice with butter and sugar and add hot milk and cream rather than broth) that I LOVE and I think that I would use that again rather than this recipe. It's just so rich and delicious and the risotto retains more of it's characteristic bite that I like so much. In the end, I think that I (unconsciously) ended up combining the two recipes to end up with the result that I was going for. Oops! I'll be better next time, promise.