Rizogalo - Greek Rice Pudding

 I tried my hand at making a very traditional rice pudding for my daughter's Greek family. I read a lot of recipes online, but this recipe from themediterraneandish.com rang true and authentic and I am so glad I trusted my instincts. Ruth Bardis is an Australian of Greek ethinicity and I must say that her recipe got me a lot of compliments from all the people who tasted it.

The only effort required for this recipe is to whisk the milk / rice mixture consistently and almost constantly.  It takes around 45 minutes, but the results were awesome. 

Ingredients:

4 1/4 cups of full cream milk

1/2 cup Arborio rice, unrinsed

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 inch strip of lemon rind

zest of 1/4 orange

1 tablespoon cornflour

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Ground cinnamon, for garnish

Method:

In a thick bottomed saucepan, add milk, rice, cinnamon stick, lemon rind and orange zest.  Heat the milk and keep whisking so that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. If using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds and add to the milk at this stage.

Continue to cook the rice whisking constantly until the rice cooks well enough for you to be able to squish it between your fore finger and thumb.  This constant whisking is what makes the pudding light and fluffy. Even though it is tempting to increase the heat and cook the rice faster, just be patient and cook on a low heat so you dont burn the milk.

When the rice is cooked, you will find that the milk has also reduced to a thick creamy consistency.

The next step is to add the cornflour to 1/4 cup water and add this slurry to the milk and rice mixture.

Continue whisking for a further 5 to 6 minutes.  The pudding should get thicker, but still be pourable. Add the vanilla essence and mix it in.

Take the pudding off the stove and let it cool.

The pudding will get thicker as it cools down, so do not make it too thick.

As the pudding cools, remove the lemon rind and cinnamon stick. Reserve the cinnamon stick for decoration. Add the sugar and mix well. 

Pour the pudding into a serving bowl and dust with ground cinnamon.  Garnish with a slice of preserved orange and the cinnamon stick.

Serve warm or cold.