Custard Rice Pudding

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! This *is* the rice pudding of my childhood and I'd been searching for the recipe for a while. I've made it a half dozen times since I've found it and of course I tweak it a bit. For me, increasing the rice was not an improvement, almost doubling the raisins did work well since they plump up so deliciously. At first I tried dried lemon peel I had on hand but, OMG!, using fresh lemon peel makes all the world of difference. Perfection! One last cooking step I recall my mother doing about halfway through cooking was to slip a tablespoon into the pudding and, disturbing the surface as little as possible, gently stir the bottom. This helps keep the rice from compacting too much and the finished results seem somewhat juicier. Of course, take special care not to slosh the water bath."