Arroz con Leche y Mango

[kirra]

Arroz con Leche y Mango

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick, roughly an inch long
1/2 tsp unground cardamom
1 inch strip lime zest, 3/4 inch wide - colored section only
1/2 cup of rice- we used jasmine
2 cups milk - we substituted soy milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons white or brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe mango, chopped into cubes

Preparation:

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan - we used a 2 quart all-clad saucepan.

Once the water has boiled, add the cinnamon stick and lime zest. Cover and simmer on medium heat for five minutes.

While the water is boiling, rinse the rice in warm water.

Drain the rice and add to the boiling water. Return to a boil, stir once and cook over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. You want all of the liquid to be absorbed, leaving the rice tender but not sticky.

While the rice is cooking, grind your cardamom. We used a mortar and pestle, since the amount is so small. You could consider using a coffee grinder if you’re doubling, or tripling, the recipe.

Combine your minced mango, ½ of the ground cardamom, and the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Set this mixture aside.

Combine your milk, sugar, salt and remaining cardamom and add to the rice mixture.

Simmer over medium to low heat until the liquid starts to thicken, stir occasionally to prevent sticking. You don’t want to over cook the rice or milk at this stage, so you should err on the side of caution. Ideally, you’re looking for a thickness similar to steel-cut oatmeal. It should still be soupy, but the milk and the rice should just be starting to grow in size and viscosity.

Remove the mixture from heat, and discard the cinnamon stick and lime zest.

Beat the egg yolks till creamy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Egg proteins function best when they are tempered, so you’ll want to add a small bit of the hot rice mixture to the yolks to bring everything into sync.

Mix the mango, cardamom and sugar you set aside earlier into the rice mixture.

Stir the egg yolks and vanilla into the rice mixture.

Spoon into small oven proof dishes.

Note: At this point, the dish can be saved for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator, how dinner party perfect is that? --

Preheat the broiler and dot the pudding with butter.

Place the dishes under the heat just long enough to brown the top. In our broiler, this takes about 3-4 minutes, but please keep in mind that broiling times can vary greatly from oven to oven.

Allow the pudding a few minutes to cool and and garnish. In our photos, we chose to garnish with a bit of ground cinnamon, and flowers made with julienned lime zest and dehydrated mangos.