Weekend Cooking...Baked Rice Pudding

Recently the Bro and the SIL jetted away to Cancun for a week of relaxation and luxury..because that is how they roll.
For me, it meant some extra quality time with the cutest doggie in the world, So-So Sammy, and the gift of a big bottle of Mexican vanilla.
Oh, what to make, what to make?

Well, the first thing that came to my mind was Rice Pudding. In my memory, vanilla was always at the flavor forefront of my mother's baked rice pudding. But, as with so many of my mother's recipes, I never wrote it down. What was I thinking?
So off to the internet I went.

Most rice pudding recipes start with cooked rice. My mother's did not.
So many contain eggs, to make a custard. My mother's did not.
Many are cooked on the stove-top. My mother's was not.

I know it contained milk..a lot of milk.
It contained rice..not that much.
Sugar and vanilla and...maybe something else.

So I found a couple of recipes. And went from there.

Caite's Baked Rice Pudding

• About 4 cups of milk
• 6 cardamon pods
• 3/4 cup raw rice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of one orange
• 3/4 cup of raisins
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Put milk in a pot and heat, adding pods of cardamom just before it comes to a boil. Take off the heat and let it steep for about 30 minutes. Remove the pods and mix all the ingredients, except the vanilla, into a large baking dish and put in the preheated oven.


Bake for about two hours, stirring every 20 minutes. After about 1 1/2 hours, add the vanilla and stir in. Bake until rice is very soft and creamy and all the milk is absorbed, adding more milk if it becomes too dry before the rice is soft.

So, was it the same as my mom's?
Yes..and no. The basic recipe was, I think, the same. Creamy, from all the stirring, and yummy. A few simple ingredients.
Same, except for the orange zest and the cardamon, which were not in my mom's recipe but seemed like excellent additions. It smelled so good!
Nothing is as cozy as some tasty rice pudding!

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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