Arroz con leche

My last few batches of arroz con leche (rice with milk, aka "sweet rice") have really been horrible. The rice never cooks. The milk curdles. By the time the rice is tender 75 minutes later, half of the starch has migrated into the milk to make sticky, gooey, pasty, inedible mess. This has left me somewhat baffled, because I have been making world-class arroz con leche now for almost 10 years, but suddenly, I lost my touch. What happened?

Nines first introduced me to arroz con leche not long after I arrived for the first time in Madrid. The most economical way to get a really great, complete meal in Spain is to order the "menu del dia." In a typical "menu" you get a choice from a list first courses plates (soup or salad), a choice from a list of main course plates (usually an assortment of meat dishes), and a choice of dessert (most commonly either flan or arroz con leche). I ate I could, of course, and before long I had tried arroz con leche. It was a hit. It is simply rice, milk, and sugar topped with cinammon. Simple, cheap, and delicious. Nines noted my infatuation. Not being a cook herself, she asked her mom for an easy recipe. It was so easy that Nines taught me herself. Before I left Spain, wrote down the recipe to make sure that I'd have it forever. I still have that 3x5 index card. All I wrote down was a follows:

125 cc rice (that's a half-cup to you and me)

250 cc sugar (one cup--I use a scant cup)

1 liter milk (one quart)

chunk of lemon (not squeezed)

Heat over low heat and stir a lot for 20 minutes

I didn't write down the rest of the prep, but it's pretty easy. Leave the lemon in for part, but not all of the cooking time. Let the mixture cool to room temp before refrigerating. Divide the mixture into small serving bowls. Top each serving bowl with a sprinkle of cinammon. Refrigerate before eating.

As you can see, this is not a difficult recipe, but clearly, I had forgotten some key detail that I failed to write down 10 years ago. I made it again last night, and it was another inedible disaster.

At dinner tonight, I was lamenting my dilemma with Lisa. Was it the rice? I've been using long grain rice, which I think is correct. Lisa uses long grain rice in her New Mexico version (see note below). I described the cooking technique, and the Lisa figured it out. She said, "when we make it, we always cook the rice in water first and then mix it in the milk." The light bulb went off. This was my mistake. I had been attempting to cook the rice in the milk, which explains why it had been taking forever for my lousy batches to cook to ruination. Problem solved. I made it again tonight, and above is a picture of my once again world-class arroz con leche. Thanks Lisa!

About now, my mother is going to chime in and say, "You know, Mom Stahl used to make sweet rice, and she always cooked her rice beforehand too!"

Note: This dish is often eaten warm in New Mexico, which I do not really care for. Around here, they bombard with cinammon and somtimes vanilla. Also, they sometimes use eggs in the prep. The final product is just too cloying and heavy for me. The Spanish version is much lighter.