rice pudding
rainy day comfort
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Last week, it rained here quite a bit. The days were dreary, and I made rice pudding, or arroz con leche. I find myself making it regularly come February, when creature comforts are most welcome. Every culture has something like this, I think: a simple starch cooked down until soft in milk and sugar, a universal dish of love. The food equivalent for the feeling of lying on your mother’s warm chest when you were small, listening to her heartbeat and knowing that all is well in the world.
It is so simple to make, short grain rice cooked in milk with sugar and cinnamon until supremely creamy, the milk slightly caramelized. The hardest part is standing and tending the pot, stirring endlessly while waiting for the rice and milk to alchemize into something much more than the sum of their parts. It’s not an unpleasant job, though—everyone in the house will come over to the stove at some point to smell and stir, irresistibly drawn to the fragrance and ritual. This is slow cooking at its best, and what I want my children to remember. Food is more than sustenance. Food is religious, the deepest connection of making and sharing and eating, and the sacredness of carrying that in you across generations, borders, lifetimes, through all the versions of yourself. The specific way your mother or grandmother or father cooked a certain dish for you, or with you—the same recipe, made absolutely unique by the hands which made it. Food contains memories, emotions, humanity. It is precious, and I think about how profound this is every time I make this recipe. I hope it becomes a comfort in your house, too.
arroz con leche (rice pudding)
notes: You can use any type of full fat milk that you wish here- just make sure its unsweetened/unflavored. I think oat milk is the ideal non-dairy milk for this, it has a natural sweetness to it that caramelizes over the long cooking time really similarly to dairy milk. If you don’t want to use oat milk, I have also had good success using a can of full fat coconut milk plus 6.5 cups unsweetened, good flavored almond milk. Just be sure you enjoy the flavor of the milk itself as each different milk will lend a different flavor profile to the finished pudding, since there’s so much of it. It may seem like too much liquid to rice, but have faith- the arborio rice throws off a lot of starch, and it cooks for a full hour, giving it time to break down and thicken beautifully into a very creamy pudding. Arborio rice is a special type of short grain white rice used for risotto, it is ideal for rice pudding because of its starch content. Other types of rice labelled as risotto or paella rice, such as Carnaroli or Bomba, are also excellent here.
8 cups // 1.9 liters milk
1/2 cup // 105g arborio rice
1/2 cup // 100g sugar
a small cinnamon stick and/or a vanilla bean, split in half (or sub 1 tsp vanilla)
a pinch of salt
optional: a few strips of orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
Put all ingredients in a large, heavy pot (I use my Dutch oven). Bring to a low boil over medium high heat, then reduce heat and allow to simmer slowly, stirring very often. The stirring helps the rice release its starch for ultimate creaminess—think risotto. Keep simmering (not boiling) until the rice is very tender and the milk is thickened and creamy, about one hour. Serve either warm or chill to eat cold, as you wish.
For an extra special treat, sprinkle the individual bowls of rice pudding with caster sugar, and caramelize the sugared top into a crunchy shell using a culinary blow torch.
I worked in a Peruvian restaurant for a bit when it was small and first starting out. "mom" was still in the prep kitchen and was the maker of the rice pudding. She would save me a small ramekin when it was hot off the stove to "test" at the beginning of my shift. Good memories. Thanks for the twist with orange.
I've made this ever since you first published it a few years ago. Made a pot a few weeks ago! It's so delicious