Cuban Dessert Recipe: Rice Pudding (Arroz Con Leche)

• 1/2 cup rice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 small piece of lemon peel
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 4 cups milk
• 1 cup sugar
• Cinnamon powder

The recipe calls for washing the rice (in the old days, you had to pick through the rice and take little bits of trash and pebbles out, then wash it, as it was not clean) but I did not wash it.

Cook the rice in the water, lemon peel and cinnamon stick until rice is soft, about 10 minutes or so. Add the milk, salt, vanilla and sugar. Bring to just under a boil and turn down heat. Cook at medium-low heat, uncovered, until it gets thick and rice has absorbed most of the milk. Stir once in a while so it will not stick.

Fish out the cinnamon stick and pour into a bowl or several individual bowls and sprinkle with powdered cinnamon. Serves 8.