Rice Pudding with Cinnamon and Fruit

Only pure white rice and very fresh milk will do, since this is a Hindu temple offering and must be acceptable to the gods. Although the ritual requires the use of a special pot and the cook to rise well before dawn in order that the first rays of the sun may catch the first bubbling-over of the milk, the dish can be prepared in the ordinary way. The fruit, spices, and sugar—in Sri Lanka, jaggary, brown palm sugar—make the dish particularly fragrant and thus more worthy of the deity’