“Arroz Con Dulce” (Sweet Coconut Rice Pudding)

“Arroz Con Dulce” -- Coconut Rice Pudding (Photo: Margarita Persico)

“Arroz Con Dulce” literally means sweet rice in Spanish. This is a very popular dessert in Puerto Rico during the holidays. Rice puddings are popular throughout Central America year round, and are prepared in a variety of ways, though made with dairy. But in Puerto Rico and in the Dominican Republic, cout milk is used instead of cow’s milk making it dairy free, cholesterol free and vegan. This recipe is a version of my mother’s, but with much less sugar (traditionally, one cup of sugar to one cup of rice). Below is the recipe on how to make this rice pudding, ” .” Buen apetito.

“Arroz Con Dulce” (Sweet Coconut Rice Pudding)

By Margarita

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups short-grain rice, brown or white
• 1 ½ cups water, filtered (if using brown rice add 1 cup more of water for every 1 ½ cups of rice)
• 5 cups cout milk (2 1/2 cans natural cout milk or make your own, see movie below on how to make cout milk)
• 6 sticks cinnamon
• 6 whole cloves, the spice
• ½ cup fructose or sugar (use more to taste; this is half the amount of sugar traditionally used; if you want it sweeter, double the amount)
• ¼ cup sugar, brown, natural cane

• 1 cup raisins, seedless

Brown rice "arroz con dulce" (Photo: Margarita Persico)

• 2 ounces ginger root slices, fresh
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1. Wash rice well. Drain.
2. If using brown rice, soak over night in water. If using white rice, soak for about an hour.
3. Drain the water.
4. If using fresh cout (the brown cout), make the cout milk ahead of time. Blend small pieces of cout with some water and strain. tinue doing this until you get the amount of cout milk you need. See movie below on how to make cout milk.
5. In a heavy, deep pot, boil 1 ½ cup of water with the spices (cinnamon sticks, cloves and ginger). Basically, you are making a tea. Once it boils, simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the spices by straining the liquid.
6. To the same pot, pour the strained spiced liquid and add the remaining liquids (cout milk and water).
7. Add sweetener. Mix well.
8. Reserve a cup of the liquid in case it dries out.
9. Add the remaining ingredients including the rice.
10. Cover, tinue to boil. After 20 minutes, uncover, stir, lower and cover. When liquid has evaporated add a little more liquid if necessary.
11. If using white rice, it will cook in about 30 minutes. If using brown rice it will cook in about 50 minutes. tinue to check the rice and stir so it will not stick.
12. Cool at room temperature and refrigerate.
13. Usually served cold.

Tips:

Rice Pudding in individual ramekin (Photo: Margarita Persico)

• If making for a party, you may prepare up two days ahead. It is okay if it has more liquid since once in the refrigerator, the grain will tinue to absorb the liquid.
• Store in refrigerator in glass pie plate or individual ramekin. Cover with plastic wrap.

Note:
I prefer to use only fresh cout; however there are a few good can cout milk. Read the label, if you cannot understand the ingredients and it sound like a chemical or artificial preservative, it probable is.

Staging:
Serve with sprinkled cinnamon on top.

MOVIE:  How to make cout milk

Notes:

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