Kheer

Do you have basmati rice in your pantry?  Whole cardamom pods in your spice cabinet?  Sliced almonds, and shredded, unsweetened coconut?  Good!  Let's make some Indian rice pudding!

Adapted from The Food of India:

1/2 C uncooked basmati rice, rinsed well (yes, you can use whatever rice you have on hand, not just basmati)
10 cadamom pods, split and seeds removed
5 C milk, 2%-ish
1/4-1/2 C sugar (I usually make my pudding 1:1 rice to sugar, but somehow 1/2 C seems like a lot for this amount of milk)
1/4 C sliced almonds
1/4 C shredded, unsweetened coconut (or to be more authentic, nix the coconut and add 1/4 C golden raisins)

Bring milk to a simmer in a heavy saucepan and add the rice and cardamom seeds.  Cook, covered for about 2 hours, until the rice is creamy, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the sugar, sliced almonds, and coconut.  Serve warm or cold.  Kheer makes a great breakfast.  Yum.

I would leave you with a pretty picture, but we ate all our kheer already.