I don't much like regular rice, but I am very fond of arroz con leche -- rice with milk = rice pudding.  Doña Martha's is richer, smoother than the rice pudding I grew up with.

Today she is making a very large batch to send home with some relatives and me.

She covers four cups of rice with four inches of water to which she adds about 3 cups of sugar and a large cinnamon stick.  She would have added a couple of vanilla beans, except she discovered the jar was empty.

After the rice has summered for about an hour, she adds the milk and continues cooking for another half hour.

Her choice of the milk is unusual, but this is  what makes her arroz con leche special -- evaporated milk and powdered milk.  240g of milk powder is dissolved in a pan of cool water and stirred until lump free before adding to the pot.

Sometimes she adds raisins, but that generates complaints from a couple of the family who don't like "dead grapes."  One of them calls raisins a more barnyard name.

I like it with or without.

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