So you didn’t need that mountain of rice. Suffice it to say that rice pudding is not only the perfect way to round off an Indian meal, it is also the quintessential comfort food. Though cooking it can be a tricky and often long process, this particular version is fairly quick and unintimidating. Regardless, rice pudding isn’t the sort of thing you can leave unattended. You must work the whole twenty minutes or so it’s going to take and for that I cannot apologize. I assure you the results are well worth it. Though I am, at times, loath to disrupt the beautiful blandness of rice pudding with spices, the addition of cardamom is truly only an enhancement. If you don’t have cardamom, however, you could always substitute with cinnamon. For a plainer, equally lovely pudding, just add a teaspoon of vanilla or rosewater. The crumbled nuts are a must. But almond slivers would do just as well as pistachio.