Arroz Doce

There is something so comforting about a bowl of rice pudding – especially when it’s sprinkled with cinnamon. The Portuguese make an excellent arroz doce with their locally-grown Carolino rice, a round rice that’s perfect for absorbing sauces and making for a creamy finish.

I filmed in the rice fields south of Porto, and the farmers had me eat an excellent bowl of arroz doce, made with their own rice. It was the most lovely experience, and I’ve been thinking back to this rice pudding ever since. So this recipe is an homage to that milk rice I ate in the fields when filming for my show Bom Dia Anne.

Please note: lots of Portuguese recipes call for stirring through a few egg yolks at the end of cooking. You can do it – it will make for an even creamier and richer rice pudding. I’ve decided not to do it, as I didn’t want to be faced with leftover egg whites and found the result just as yummy without.

You can watch how rice is grown in Portugal in this episode of Bom Dia Anne.

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Ingredients

700ml milk
1 cinnamon stick
2 slices of lemon peel
200g Carolino rice
500ml water
A pinch of salt
80g sugar

To finish:
Cinnamon powder

Method

Serves 4-6

Put the milk, cinnamon stick and lemon peel in a saucepan and put over a medium heat to simmer.

Meanwhile, put the rice, water and pinch of salt into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook until almost all of the water has been absorbed and the rice is al dente.

Add two ladles of the warm milk to the rice and cook until most of the milk has been absorbed, stirring regularly. Repeat until all the milk has been used up, then stir through the sugar.

Transfer the milk rice into a serving plate too cool. Dust with cinnamon – if you want to make a criss-cross pattern, take a bit of cinnamon with your fingers and make line patterns on the rice.

This will keep in the fridge for 4 days.