Rice Pudding

I have a new recipe for rice pudding. I love rice pudding and must have half a dozen recipes for it, but have never found one as good as the rice pudding one can buy at the Pasta Shop. So I keep collecting more recipes. This is not a totally fruitless endeavor because I realize that just about every country has some kind of rice pudding, each with it's own flavoring. I have recipes from Denmark,, Mexico, Britain, Italy and India. Some have orange and , one has cinnamon, the Italians like glaceed fruit and the Indian one has rose water in it. In Bali I have had a delicious black rice pudding with palm sugar for breakfast. In Japan I have had mochi. It's not exactly a pudding, and not always sweet, bit it is made from pounded rice and often wrapped around something sweet or baked in a pan with sugar, and cut into squares. I once had a very strange rice dessert in China that was neon yellow and the consistency of PlayDoh. It followed one of the most delicious meals I have ever had and perhaps I was just too full.

Today's recipe is from the Middle East, and contains cardamom seeds and vanilla bean. Those are steeping in a combination of milk and cream and will soon be combined with rice, honey and more milk. In the meantime I am running everywhere looking for my lens cap. It was only a matter of time, since it is supposed to come with a string, but didn't. The last time I had it, I was about to take a picture of the peaceful Buddha in our garden. Didn't find the lens cap but decided it was more important to live in the moment...

...which is finishing the Middle Eastern rice pudding because OilMan and Dana are making a lamb tagine for dinner.