GREZAGOLO - RICE PUDDING

I've been thinking about it ever since I found the Pearl Rice at Food 4 Less last week. Food 4 Less is Krogers which made it less daunting because we have Krogers in Detroit. It was nice. Well lit, OK prices in spite of the 4 Less in the name indicating that the prices might be super great, and a great selection of white rice. My grandmother's recipe calls for Water-Maid Short Grain Rice, but try to find it. So I use the pearl now which is more available with the popularity of Rissoto. ANYWAY. I wanted to make the double recipe, but had written a note on the back of my recipe card in 2003 telling myself not to double the recipe because it makes too much, I'm the only one who eats it, and besides, it burns the pan and has a burned flavor. Bummer. I really wanted to make the large batch. I decided to boil the rice and water 'til water is absorbed in a smaller pan, and then heat the milk in the larger pan. As I was heating the milk, I came up with the idea to put the larger pan on two stacked stove grates so that the pudding wouldn't be so close to the flame which always causes it to burn in that pan. And it worked! And it's delicious. And oh, so comforting. Especially since it's in the souffle dish that my grandmother and mother always used for it.


Grezagolo

1 cup Water-Maid Rice (short grain) (I've been using pearl rice)
1 cup water
1 Quart hot milk
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt

This is how I made it today, but my recipe really calls for 6 cups of water for the first step! No wonder it went so fast today. Boil the rice and water until the water is absorbed. (In the original recipe, boil the 1 cup rice with 6 cups water until the water is absorbed, then add the hot milk to it) Heat the milk in a large pan and add the rice to it. Cook and stir well for 5 minutes. Add sugar and beaten egg (beat the egg in a measuring cup or bowl, add some of the hot rice mixture to the egg and then add the egg back to the hot mixture. This keeps the egg liquid). Boil until thick and creamy; Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour into serving dishes and top with cinnamon. Enjoy.