NEVER Buy Rice Pudding Again, Try This Old Mexican Trick

The tub in your refrigerator is cold and stiff and tastes like vanilla. The one you remember came warm in a cup and moved when you tilted it. And when you tried to make it, it looked perfect in the pot and turned into a brick by dinner. It was never your hands, mija. It is not an ingredient. It is a moment. You turn off the fire while it still looks too thin. 📖 My mother's whole kitchen, every recipe and every measure, one book: https://berthascookbook.com I promised you this one three times. Here it is. THE TWO THINGS 1. WATER FIRST, MILK SECOND. Rice cooks poorly in milk. Let cheap water do the cooking and expensive milk do the luxury. 2. STOP WHILE IT IS LOOSER THAN YOU WANT IT. It does half its thickening in the cup. Pull it at perfect and it arrives at wallpaper paste. THE RECIPE, WORD FOR WORD (page 344 to 345 of La Cocina de Bertha) Serves 6. About 50 minutes. • 1 cup long grain white rice, rinsed • 4 cups water • 1 stick Mexican canela • 4 cups whole milk • 1/2 cup sugar, OR 1/2 can (about 7 oz) sweetened condensed milk and no sugar • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla • Pinch of salt • 1/2 cup raisins, optional • Ground canela for the top 1. Simmer the rice in the water with the canela stick, uncovered, 15 to 18 minutes, until the rice is tender all the way through and most of the water is gone. Bite a grain. Milk will never finish what water did not. 2. Add the milk, the sugar or condensed milk, and the salt. The gentlest simmer, uncovered, stirring often and scraping the bottom, 20 to 25 minutes. This is the one rice you are allowed to stir. Your spoon is making the sauce. 3. At about 20 minutes, lift the spoon. It should fall in a slow ribbon like heavy cream, with milk still moving between the grains. It will look too thin. TURN OFF THE FIRE. 4. Off the heat, stir in the vanilla and the raisins. 5. Into cups, ground canela on top. Wait 10 minutes and watch it finish by itself. Warm or cold, both are correct. IF IT WENT WRONG • Solid as mortar the next day: nothing went wrong. Stir in warm milk a splash at a time and it comes back to life. • Scorched taste: heat too high, stirring too rare. It cannot be rescued, only forgiven. Start again, lower. • Thin and milky: 10 more minutes of simmering AND stirring. • Rice firm at the center: you rushed the water. • Harsh or spicy: your stick is cassia, not canela. True Mexican canela is soft and flaky. Use half as much cassia. Tell me your county, and settle two things: raisins or no raisins, and warm or cold. 🧽 The pot after, milk cooked onto the bottom: Clean The Mexican Way → [link to cleaning channel] 🍳 The savory half of my mother's kitchen: Cook The Mexican Way → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEpgRWDUGVu7UaYc7fB1Idw #arrozconleche #ricepudding #bakethemexicanway