Around the World in 12 Dishes -- Bolivia: Arroz con Leche

 Between Hazel being sick, me being sick, holidays and snow, we have fallen very behind in Around the World in 12 Dishes. However we are going to catch up this week. The group itself seems to be having issues and may be ending, however Hazel LOVES studying a country each month so we are going to keep doing it here and will have link parties in case anyone wants to join in. (I'm in the process of seeing if I can have the codes used in my account instead so the past link parties will be available again.)

La Paz, Bolivia
By Teomancimit (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Back in December our focus was on Bolivia. We read lots of books about Bolivia and some fun stories from Bolivia, but we had not gotten around to the actual cooking. At one point we had bought all the ingredients, but some went bad before we made it. Hazel was sick before Christmas and basically every week after until Martin Luther King Day and then I was sick and the snow started falling here. And it kept falling or at least seems to every week with no melting. Ugh!! So those are my excuses. I did however do an introduction post to Bolivia on the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog. I hope you will read it!

Squirrel Monkey in Bolivia
By Squirrel_monkey3.JPG: Lindadevolderderivative work: Berichard (Squirrel_monkey3.JPG) [CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

We did not find any recipes in the books we got out of the library, so I searched on-line. I found a recipe on Bolivia Bella for Arroz con Leche or rice pudding.  I adapted the recipe from there.

New Picture added 2/25/15

Arroz con Leche (adapted from Bolivia Bella)

Measuring Water

Ingredients
2 cups of rice
1/2 gallon of almond milk (we used almond milk because of Hazel's dairy intolerance, but other milks can be used)
9 tablespoons of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lemon rind grated
1 teaspoon butter

Instructions
Rinse the rice and cook it in four cups of water for about 20 minutes. Rice will be fluffy and water will be gone.

Add half the milk to the rice and cook, stirring constantly.

Pour remaining half of milk into another pan and mix it with the cinnamon stick, and grated lemon rind (we also added the teaspoon of cinnamon because I was trying to do too much at once and did not read the recipe carefully). Heat this up. Then add it slowly to the rice stirring occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed. 

Grating Lemon Rind

Add six tablespoons of sugar and the butter and mix well. Remove the cinnamon stick. Pour into serving bowl and cool completely. (I put a small amount into three plastic containers and put them in the refrigerator and we ate it warm. Hazel could not wait to try it.)

Serve in small bowls and top with cinnamon and remaining sugar. (We did not top extra sugar or cinnamon.)

Our consensus is that Hazel loved it and Steve and I thought it was all right.  

Enjoying her dessert

 That is our exploration of Bolivia. Stop by tomorrow to see our main dish from Senegal and  share your Bolivian dishes and/or crafts below.  To learn more about Bolivia check out these posts: Andean Flamingo, Happy New Year, and Quinceañera.