Middle Eastern Rice Pudding With Essence of Orange Blossom

This rather easy dessert, with the milk and orange-blossom is the essence of cool. You'll actually feel a degree or two cooler once you've tasted it. On a quest for a standard rice pudding recipe, I found this one and made it a bit less super-sweet, added some salt for complexity and took out the cinnamon so that all you taste is orange blossom.

Here's my version:

1 cup of raw arborio rice
2 cups water
3 cups whole milk
1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon orange-blossom water
1/2 tsp salt

Heat the rice and water in a very large pan to the boiling point then lower the heat and simmer covered until the rice is done and the water is completely absorbed, aprox. 15 minutes. Add the milk and stir to incorporate paying particular attention to scraping all the rice from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook stirring periodically until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. Add the sugar and orange-blossom water. The consistency will become more liquidy as a result, so continue cooking and stirring for another 5-10 minutes until it is thick and creamy once more. Refrigerate for a few hours and serve chilled. Music to chill out with Orange-Blossom Rice Pudding: "Rice Pudding" by Jeff Beck.