Nov 05, 2015 My mother-in-law recently arrived with a suitcase full of all my favourite spices from India – the freshest cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns, and cloves – so I’ve been using them in everything I can. I tossed a cinnamon stick into my go-to rice pudding recipe along with a vanilla bean and a handful of raisins. I stood at the stove stirring and tasting the warm pudding and deeply inhaling the sweet steam. It was like a much-needed warm hug. Now if only there was a pudding that feels like a nap. The rice I used was Thai sticky (glutinous) rice – I had it on hand and wanted to find out if it would be a good substitute or arborio. It was great on the first day, but got too sticky overnight. Stick with arborio. Feel free to substitute the vanilla bean for extract (just stir in a teaspoon at the very end) and/or the cinnamon stick for ground cinnamon (just swap in a teaspoonful at the same point in the recipe). And I would totally support your decision to add an ounce of rum with the cream.
