Vanilla Cinnamon Dessert Risotto, a sort of rice pudding
Take a big flat-bottom pan, like for other risotto. Add 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice and 2 tbps of almond oil. Toast the rice in the oil for a bit. Add a split and scraped vanilla bean and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and then begin adding the liquid (see below) at the same time.
You'll want 6-8 cups or more of rice milk, dairy milk or both. The rice milk makes it nicely sweet, thick and starchy while the dairy milk gives it a nice fatty flavor. Combining both is a good choice. If you do both, put in the rice milk before the dairy milk - rice milk doesn't burn easily, cow milk is more temperamental. Today I used about 5 cups of rice milk and 1 1/2 cups of raw dairy milk. Came out great.
For a risotto, including this one, you'll want to add the liquid gradually, about 1/2 cup at a time. I didn't heat the liquid before adding it, but that's usual for a normal rice-and-broth risotto, and might have helped in some undefined way. The liquid is added just to keep the rice moist as it cooks down. The milk cooks down to a starchy, thick, slightly sweet base and the rice breaks down and eventually turns into one mass with it -- you know, risotto. But in this case, sweet and vanilla/cinnamon.
I'm told 6 cups of liquid should be plenty, but I usually add more (gradually, of course) to get an extra-gooey risotto.
I couldn't decide how to finish it, so I divided it into four and tried four ways. Here are the amounts of stuff to add for a full recipe (4x what I used, in other words):
Finish #1, plain:
1/2 cup sugar
2-4 tbsp butter
Take out the vanilla bean
Suggested garnish: none, you're boring. Well, okay, maybe a shake of cinnamon.
Finish #2, OMG vanilla:
1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar
2-4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (or equivalent vanilla paste)
Leave in vanilla bean
Suggested garnish: vanilla whipped cream, vanilla powder and/or vanilla sugar
Finish #3, apple:
1/2 cup sugar
2-4 tbsp butter
1 cup apple juice - cook it down, like the previous liquid
Take out the vanilla bean
Suggested garnish: slice of apple, optional shake of cinnamon
Finish #4, hot buttered rum:
3/4 cup brown sugar
4-6 tbsp butter
1+ cups spiced rum
Add rum until you don't give a shit about the vanilla bean
Cook down the rum as much as you feel is necessary. For kid-friendly, get it up to temperature and give it a few minutes. For grown-ups in a good mood, run the spoon through it once or twice, take it off the heat and call it good -- and/or finish at the table from your hip flask.
Suggested garnish: brown sugar and/or butter and/or hot buttered rum in a cup next to it.
