Arroz con leche

A tasty breakfast treat or late night snack.

Jasmine rice has a sweet, nutty flavor to it, but take your pick long grain, short, what matters is that you are serving your family in love. I have used long grain for this one.

Ingredients:
Water
Cinnamon stick
Rice
Sugar/sweetener
Milk
Raisins (you can also use craisins, they taste wonderful!)

So here’s how you get it done.
Start with a little over the amount of water you will need for cooking rice. Add 2 cinnamon sticks. This is a sure fire way to get the flavor throughout your rice. It isn’t powder sprinkled on, it penetrates your senses.

By the way, cinnamon is really healthy for your heart and blood pressure. It also stabiles blood sugar.

While the water is prepped, measure out your rice. I always make a bit more than I think I’m going to need, because we always seem to want seconds. If it isn’t finished for breakfast, someone will eat it for snack. It’s good cold, too.

Measure and then rinse your rice. Once, I found a small stone. It’s good sense to check through your rice while rinsing.

I’ve run into my first blogging problem. I don’t know how to turn a picture in the blogger. Can you? I don’t see how. If you can help me, post, please! 🙂

Cinnamon sticks still need to boil longer. The water isn’t dark enough. Steam is coming up to the camera for a foggy view. You can see a little bit of the water.

In the picture above, you can see the water is just slightly browned. Just not enough. I’d add ground cinnamon to this one, too. I was just in a hurry to get the food on the table. You can see that it’s boiling, though.

Pull out the cinnamon sticks when the water has turned reddish. Add your rice. It’s okay if it’s boiled down more, you will add milk at the end of cooking.

Put a lid on it and STAY IN THE KITCHEN. The last thing you want to do is clean up a messy stove with rice. A timer is good, set it for 15 minutes and check it. Give it a stir, pull out a grain or two and check for texture. The water should be absorbing into the rice and it will be nearly dry. At this point, you can add the raisins and milk. Turn the temp down, the milk will continue to absorb. Cleaning cooked milk off the stove isn’t fun either. Cover it again, tip the lid at a slight angle, to let some steam escape.

Water had boiled down and I added milk, which at this point was nearly absorbed. We add more milk to the bowl when served. (Yes, I know, it’s white rice, not brown. Ok. Did I mention we add sugar? So it’s filled of carbs and sugars. Buahahaha. But it’s so good.)

Stir again, add sweetener to taste. Since it has the cinnamon and fruit, it should not need an awful lot.
Serve with cool milk or cream. (Because that is just sooo good.) Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Arroz con leche–served. I add sugar or maple syrup to individual plates, not to the whole thing, although you could. I’m so sad, this bowl is missing raisins. Plump, rehydrated, flavor packed raisins.