Recipe of the week: Rice pudding, my way mixed with the Haitian way

This is one of my favorite deserts. But because I've eaten the Haitian version of rice pudding aka "duri au lait" all of my life, I've always disliked one you can find in the grocery store.

You know how some things are only good when they are homemade? This is one of them. It's a bit long to make (over an hour for the traditional version, 2h for my baked version) but it is totally worth it! You can put it in the fridge and enjoy it for almost a week!

My version appears darker than the usual rice pudding. Why? Because I use dark vanilla, and abuse of it in the recipe.

Here is my recipe for rice pudding. It's basically my mom's recipe with a few modifications. Check check, check it out!

YOU WILL NEED

-1 cup of rice, preferably Arborio. 

-Approximately 4-5 cups of
milk. You can use regular milk but since I'm Haitian, I used Carnation's Evaporated Milk. Of course.

-1 cup of heavy cream (again, I used Carnation milk instead)

-4 egg yolks

-1 cup of sugar OR....in my version, I used 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup of brown sugar

-1 tablespoon of corn starch

-1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

-1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

-2-3 tablespoons of vanilla extract (Haitian vanilla extract for me. Duh)

-2 tablespoons of margarine or unsalted butter

-Grated lime zest, about 2 teaspoons

SO!

-Boil the rice in the milk over medium heat for about half an hour, covered. Reduce the heat and cook uncovered for another 20 minutes or so, until the rice is way overcooked (which is what we're looking for, you know?). Little trick: If you have some, add a piece of cinnamon to the rice while it is cooking. Yummy. 

-While the rice is cooking, mix the sugar with the corn starch, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl.

-In another bowl, mix the egg yolks

-Once the rice is cooked (it should have the creamiest texture ever), remove from heat and slowly add the egg yolks, mix, add the vanilla and butter, mix, the dry ingredients, mix and finally, add the 1 cup of heavy cream or Carnation milk, lime zest and the vanilla. Mix everything well.

This is where it stops in my mom's recipe. If you like your rice pudding extra extra creamy, you can stop and eat it right away, either hot or cooled at room temperature.

HOWEVER! If you want to add a little twist, go on with my version!

-Add the rice pudding in a greased baking pan. Cook "Au Bain Marie" in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. You should see a delicious caramel crust on top. Serve hot :)

Enjoy!!!

xoxo

Sass