Crème Rice

Hey All, Andi said this would be a good time for me to take a turn posting since I planned it out. Anyhow, for months I have been wanting to modify the tapioca pudding recipe off 101cookbooks.com to make rice pudding with Japanese rice. I've always loved rice pudding and Japanese(short grain) rice, but the only time I have had rice pudding made with Japanese rice was the times I attempted making it on my mission. These attempts never really matched up to my expectations or hopes. When eating Crème brûlée I've always imagined Japanese rice a very fitting filler. This is the first time I think I have made something even close to what I have imagined. The recipe and technique still needs some tweaking but I'll still give it a 4.5/5 because it was really hard to stop myself from eating the whole batch and save some for later ;P Andi loved it saying: "I feel like I'm eating Crème brûlée but with only a third the calories".
This time I followed the steps for the tapioca pudding, but I have some plans to make it better so check out some of my suggestions at the end if you want to give it a try.

Crème Rice (or maybe Ricè)

3 cups milk divided (we used 1%, but I'd use whole for a cremier pudding)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup Japanese rice
1/4 salt
2/3 vanilla bean
2+ large egg yolks

First soak rice in about 3/4 cup milk for 30-60 minutes(I accidentally left it for about 90 minutes) in a medium sized pot. Then mix the sugar, egg yolks, salt together. Mix this with the rice and add the rest of the milk. Then cut the vanilla bean in half, scrape the paste off with the backside of a knife into the mixture then drop the bean in the mix too. Wisk together. Bring everything to a boil over medium to medium/high heat, stirring almost constantly, this took a bit over 15mins. Then reduce the heat so that you just have a low simmer. Cook it all until the pudding thickens up and the rice is fully cooked(about 20mins). Make sure to stir especially well so as to not scorch the milk. Serve warm or cool.
Future Plans: If I were to do this again, I would make sure to use whole milk for a creamier base. I'd also cook the rice before adding it too the pudding, as the milk changes the texture of the rice. Also a little ground coriander or lemon peel might add a nice fresh taste.
I'd like to note that you can use vanilla extract just add it at the end of cooking, but once you try real vanilla bean in this kind of treat, it is hard to go back.