This is a stovetop rice pudding built on cardamom pods and a cinnamon stick, thickened with condensed and evaporated milk. It is not a regional recipe. It is one cook’s version, picked up across a lot of kitchens, and the cardamom is the part that makes it worth the pot.
Rice Pudding Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) rice
- 4 cups (960 ml) water
- 4 cardamom pods, squashed but whole
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
- 1 can (14 oz / 397 g) condensed milk
- 1 can (12 oz / 354 ml) evaporated milk
- 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
- Optional: golden raisins and additional cinnamon for serving
- Optional: other fruits of your choice for serving
Instructions:
- If using a rice cooker, combine rice, water, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, and sugar. Cook as normal. If not using a rice cooker, place all ingredients in a 3-quart (3 L) pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
- While the rice cooks, mix together the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and whole milk in a separate bowl.
- Once the rice is cooked, add the milk mixture to the rice, and continue cooking on low heat for another 15 minutes. Stir occasionally if not using a rice cooker. The mixture should become thick and creamy.
- Optionally, add golden raisins to the rice pudding.
- Fish out the cardamom pods and the cinnamon stick before serving, or warn whoever is eating it.
- Serve the rice pudding warm or cold, sprinkled with cinnamon and accompanied by other fruits of your choice, if desired.
Another one of the old standbys that take you back in time. No matter where I have lived it seems that people had their own version of delicious creamy rice pudding. I love rice so I enjoy it in all forms savory or sweet it is food for the soul. In Kolkata, I had rice pudding with cardamom and pistachio nuts and I loved it. Today my rice pudding has cardamom pods but no pistachio, couldn’t find any in the store.
Ceylon cinnamon is sweeter and milder than cassia, the right choice for atole, conkies, and sweet drinks. Buy it as sticks and steep or grind as the recipe calls for.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Keeps five days refrigerated in a sealed container. It sets firm as it cools, which is normal. Loosen it with a splash of milk when you reheat, or eat it cold, which is how most of it gets eaten.
Do not freeze it. Cooked rice goes grainy and the milk separates on thawing, and there is no stirring it back together.
It is a good make-ahead. The cardamom keeps working into the pudding overnight and day two tastes more of it than day one.
Equipment
A rice cooker does the first stage without attention, which is the reason it is the first option in the method. A 3-quart (3 L) heavy pot works and needs stirring.
Whichever you use, it wants a heavy base. Two cans of milk and half a cup of sugar over low heat will catch and scorch on a thin pan, and scorched milk taints the whole pot.
Tips and Variations
Squash the cardamom pods, do not grind them. Whole pods perfume the pudding and come out at the end. Ground cardamom turns it grey and the flavour goes flat and soapy.
Pistachios belong here if you can get them, chopped and scattered at the end. That is the Kolkata version and it is the one this recipe is reaching for.
It is sweet as written, with a can of condensed milk plus half a cup of sugar. Drop the sugar entirely on the first go and add it at the end if you want it.
Nutrition is estimated from standard ingredient labels, per serving, six servings to the pot.
Related Recipes
For the Belizean pudding on this site, see Belizean bread pudding.
Other things done with condensed milk here: flan, Belizean lemon pie and coconut tableta.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a traditional Belizean rice pudding?
No. This is one cook’s own version, and the cardamom comes from a bowl of rice pudding eaten in Kolkata rather than from anywhere in Belize. It is on a Belizean site because the cook is, not because the recipe is.
What kind of rice should I use?
Ordinary long grain white rice, which is what a rice cooker is set up for. Short grain gives a stickier, thicker pudding if that is what you want. Do not use parboiled rice, which stays separate and will not go creamy.
Can I use only evaporated milk, or only condensed?
They do different jobs. Condensed milk brings the sugar and the body, evaporated brings dairy without more sweetness. Using only condensed makes it cloying, and only evaporated makes it thin unless you add more sugar.
Why whole cardamom pods instead of ground?
Squashed whole pods release their oil slowly and lift out cleanly at the end. Ground cardamom disperses through the pudding, greys the colour and tastes flat and soapy by comparison.
My pudding is too thick or too thin. What do I do?
Too thin means it needs longer on low heat with the lid off. Too thick is easier: stir in whole milk a splash at a time. It also thickens considerably as it cools, so stop while it still looks slightly loose.
Warm or cold?
Both work. Warm it tastes more of the cardamom, cold it is firmer and the cinnamon comes forward. Cold with raisins is the usual way it disappears from the fridge.
How many does it serve?
Six generous bowls. It halves cleanly, though half a can of condensed milk is awkward, so it is usually easier to make the full pot and keep the rest.
Shop This Recipe
Flan, custard, and Belizean coconut tart filling all build on evaporated milk's reduced water content. The 12oz can is the diaspora pantry standard.
Flan, dulce de leche, fudge, key lime pie, fruit cake: Belizean and Caribbean desserts are built on a can of sweetened condensed milk. The 14oz can is the standard size every recipe assumes.
About Joe Post
Joe Post is the founder and editor of Belize News Post. He grew up in Corozal Town, Belize, on the Caribbean sea with a view across Corozal Bay to Cerro Maya. He has lived in Costa Rica, Kenya, England, Spain, and the United States. He grew up cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, and has personally tested the vast majority of the recipes on this site. He started BNP in the early 2000s as one of the few independent Belizean news sources online. Over the years, the food became the stickiest thing. News comes and goes. Food stays.
