Arroz con Leche - Rice Pudding

[Bob]

The following recipe is adapted the one that can be found at
http://www.asturiasdigital.com/recetas/ ... nleche.htm

Rice Pudding
from Asturiasdigital.com

For 6 persons.

6 tablespoons rice (I use short grain rice)
2 quarts milk, plus a little extra
9 tablespoons sugar (I use Nutrasweet)
1 stick cinnamon
1 large piece lemon peel (try not to get too much of the white part, which can be bitter)
ground cinnamon
salt

Put the rice in a non-stick pan and add enough cold water to barely cover it, together with a pinch of salt. Heat it until it just begins to boil, turn down the heat and wait five minutes. The rice should absorb all of the water. If this is not the case, notify the proper authorities or wait a little longer.

Add enough milk to cover the rice and reduce the heat when it begins to boil (it should barely simmer). Add the lemon rind and the cinnamon stick, and stir frequently (constantly is overkill) until the rice begins to get creamy. If it doesn't get creamy–no, its better that we don't even think about that.

Continue cooking on a very low heat, adding more milk from time to time until it has all been used up (I added half the milk in the beginning, so I didn't have to stir the mixture as often, and half when it got creamy). Stir from time to time. The whole thing takes two hours. Yes, you read that correctly, TWO hours. Wouldn't it be better just to buy something for dessert?

When all of the milk has been added (and the mixture is done), stir in the sugar and heat until dissolved. Serve cold in individual dishes, sprinkled with powdered cinnamon.


This is a pretty free translation of the original, but I think the comments in the original are funny.

[Elsina]

I just read your recipe. I must say I never used water for "el arroz con lleche", I just use milk, I think it tastes better that way...

And I suggest that instead of sprinkling with powdered cinnamon you try and sprinkle it with sugar and then parch it until the sugar melts into a thin brown covering and let it rest until it crystallises, it's delicious!

Besinos!

[Carlos]

WATER????? What a blasphemy!!!!

This is the "madrilenian" "arroz con lleche" version, an authentic herexy. Milk, of course.

[Bob]

I'll have to admit that I have never once used even as a single drop of water when making rice pudding, only milk (the way my grandmother made it). I translated and posted the original recipe that begins this thread only because I thought the instructions and comments contained within it were entertaining.

Bob Martinez

[Kiran]

Bob, YO! YOU ARE THE MAN! I needed to find a dessert for my spanish project and I found it. Thanks a lot; really helped me.
Kiran

[yael]

Por si alguien está interesado en una receta de arroz con leche muy sencilla. Sale muy cremoso y está buenísimo.

Ingredientes:
800 cc de leche
200 cc de lata líquida
90 gramos de arroz
90 gramos de azúcar
un palo de canela
piel de limón

Elaboración en vitrocerámica:
Poner (en frío) en una pota la nata, la leche, el arroz, el palo de canela y la piel de limón (un trocito). Poner a fuego máximo (en vitrocerámica poner al 9, suponiendo que laptencia va de 0 a 9) y revolver constantemente hasta que empieza a hervir. En ese momento se baja el fuego al 4 y se tendrá 30 minutos. Ahora no es necesario revolver de continuo, bastará revolver de vez en cuando. Al pasar los 30 minutos añadir el azúcar y dejar 10 minutos más.

Ya me diréis si os gusta

[Raquel M]

Bob, I like your recipe, it's almost the same as the one I make,
but let me tell you what I do.
You must put the rice with the water and cover it for more than 3 hours
before you start to cook it with the water.
The rice must be cooked with the water at the beggining to make it soft...
if you start cooking the rice with milk, the rice will never be soft.
I use milk, I add a spoon of butter, and after the milk is all absorbed I
add 1 can of evaporated milk and when it is all absorbed I add 1 can
of swet condensed milk and sugar to taste. You can not add the sugar
fom the beggining because it will take longer to cook because the rice
will take longer to absorbe it and the rice will not be soft.
I use the condensed milk and evaporated milk because it makes it like
a cream...I put anise when I cook it and I sprinkled it with cinnamon
powder at the top when it is finished.
yes I also cook it with the lemon peel.
I have been cooking my " arroz con leche " for many years for the
church's festival in November...I doubt they will make money selling it
because all the volunteers congratulate me for the " arroz con leche"
I wonder if the volunteers paid for it !!!

[Bob]

OK, now you have whipped up my appetite and I am going t have to make some tonight, usiing your suggestions.

[Raquel M]

Bob, if you finish cooking the arroz con leche and you see it is not
soft and fluffy or it is very dry, you must add more milk and stir it.

Bob, si termina de cocinar el arroz con leche y ve que no esta suave y
desgranado o esta muy seco, hay que agregarle mas leche y revolverlo.

[Marta Elena Díaz García]

Hola a todos:

My mother says the receipt of Bob is similar to that of her grandmother. However, she says my great-grandmother never used water neither cinnamon or sweeteners (and… thank goodness they had sugar!).

She cooked the rice with the milk (from home cows, not packed milk), the sugar and a pinch of salt. Without salt the taste is not the same; it is bland. The whole process took her all the morning, continuously stirring (more than 4 hours).

She made the rice-milk in a copper cauldron and used a wooden spoon to remove the mixture. She finally decorated the dish with confites as she had six grandchildren waiting to eat that wonderful rice. My mother still remembers it as the best rice with milk of the world.

I don’t know which is the English version of “confite”. Confites are small coloured spheres of candies, sugar, chocolate, etc.
Some people use to add a trickle of anisette when the rice is ready (e.g. myself )

The secret: natural milk, not skimmed, not packed; sugar, a pinch of salt and lot of patience.
Marta

[Raquel M]

My friend, that was then, but this is now....the milk is not the same, the
sugar is not the same...we have to invent solucions to duplicate that
recipe....Yes, I use a wooden spoon and a cooper pan...and a lot of
patience...

[Art]

Marta, in many places in the northern US, we call confites "jimmies". Another name, perhaps more common, is "sprinkles".

---------------------

Marta, en muchos lugares en el norte de los EE.UU., "confites" llamamos "jimmies". Otro nombre, tal vez más corriente, es "sprinkles".

[Raquel M]

No, sprinkles is a different thing.....confites are small cuts of dry fruits,
candies and chocolates....
Sprinkles come in a bottle and you shake it...confites have a bigger size.

[Marta Elena Díaz García]

Evidentemente, Raquel, aquellos eran otros tiempos, soy consciente de ello, por eso puse "oldest receipt" . Rememorar lo que hacían nuestros abuelos, y por qué no, añorarlo si era mejor, no creo que sea para tomarselo a mal.


En cuanto a los confites, lo que en mi casa se llaman confites son esas partículas de colores que aparecen encima del dulce de la figura. ¿Cómo llaman ustedes a eso?


Art…yo no sé si les pasa a los demás, pero es muy difícil escribir directamente en el foro, pues la ventana está todo el rato moviéndose hacia arriba y no puedo ver lo que estoy escribiendo. ¿Hay modo de solucionar eso?




TRANSLATION

Yes, Raquel, those were the days!. I am aware of it and the reason because I entitled my mail as “oldest receipt” . Remembering what our grandparents did is not to take it in a wrong way.


As regards “confites”, at home what we mean by “confites” are the tiny coloured particles over the cake in the picture. How do you call them?


Art…..I don’t know if others have the same problem, but it is very difficult for me to write directly in the forum window: all time it is moving up so I can not see what I am writing. Is there a way to solve it?

[Raquel M]

Oh, no, perdoname, yo no he tomado nada a mal, mas bien con pesar
lo dije porque hay que hacer muchos inventos sobre todo con la leche
que no es la misma de la de antes, hay que agregarle mantequilla para
las recetas, en fin, no me saben igual que las que hacia mi abuela .

Si, el confite que dices es el que menciona Art....el que yo pense es uno
mas antiguo....mas bien rustico....
Art....tu estabas correcto con el sprinkle que mencionaste!!!