Ah, rice pudding. The English name sounds horrible, but as a child riz-au-lait was one of my favourite desert. My grandmother would use left overs from paellas to make a really simple one, which I would then coat in fake (read: not homemade) caramel. It would always end up being a messy, sticky mess, but what joy. Seeing that evenings around here have gotten much more quiet and enjoyable without television blaring in the background, I thought I would use half an hour to revisit the recipe. As it turned out, Mark had bought me some fancy caramel chocolate today (with £10 note he found on the floor walking to work this morning!) and the marriage between the two is perfect.

Riz-au-lait (rice pudding)

Ingredients

1 cup cooked white rice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small anise seed or 1 cardamom pod

1/2 vanilla pod

1/2 semi skimmed milk, 1/2 vanilla soy milk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 chunk of orange peel

Recipe: bring all ingredients to boil, and shift to low simmer as soon as bubbles are forming at the surface. Cover for 40 minutes - until the rice has absorbed all liquid (be sure to check nothing is sticking to the pan). When done, take out the pods and peel ad let cool for a couple of minutes. Serve hot or cold, sprinkled with some vanilla sugar and caramel chocolate. I also strongly recommend it with caramel tea - oh god yes, caramel tea. I might make myself another cup and listen to more Nick Cave, who I have a bit of a weird crush going for at the moment. Weird because well, dude looks uhm, unique.