Arroz con Dulce (PuertoRican Coconut Rice Pudding)

The holidays are right around the corner. It's time to master all of the recipes and veganize them so that I don't have to miss out this year, and so my family won't look at me like an alien when I say, "No, I don't eat that". Arroz con dulce is one of those desserts that you have to make in bulk, if not, you missed out because the family will demolish every bit of it. You eat it cold, or hot, it's up to you. It's a Puerto Rican favorite and as a custom, it's served around the holidays as a dessert. Puerto Rican style rice pudding, I can eat it all day every day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I made it healthier by substituting the sugar with agave nectar. Agave nectar has a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar. My grandfather's recipe has real fresh Coconut as an ingredient rather than the canned coconut everyone else uses.  I feel it tastes so much better that way! I made my own coconut milk, you should too! Put the extra work into it, and make your grandparents proud!
 

 Ingredients:

1½ cups arroz cello rojo (short grain white rice found in Bravo Supermarkets)
4¼ cups coconut milk

1½ teaspoons salt

3 cinnamon sticks
2 ounces grated ginger

6 whole cloves
Pinch of nutmeg-optional
1 cup Agave nectar
½ cup raisins
****

3/4 cup coconut milk (reserve to use at the end)*****

Coconut milk: Buy a mature brown coconut from your local produce market. Ask them to crack it open. If not, then take it home and pierce a hole in one of the grooves. Set directly over the stove, or fire until it is blackened, the coconut should crack on it's own. Finish breaking it apart with a large cleaver, or machete. There should be a thin brown shell surrounding the coconut meat, like what you see when you crack a peanut. Take the meat out and grate it on a grater. You want small shreds. Then soak in hot water and pass the coconut through a cheese cloth or anything else that would catch the meat, and pass the milk through. Learn to make fresh coconut milk here. 1 Coconut can yield a lot of milk, enough for the recipe and for you to enjoy a fresh glass!

Directions: 

    1.    Wash rice and soak in water to cover, generously, soak over night.
    2.    The next day, combine the 4½ cups of coconut milk, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg in a medium size caldero.
    3.    Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to moderate, cover and boil for 15 minutes.
    4.    Drain rice thoroughly and add to caldero. Mix and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Reduce heat to low and cook unitl rice is completely dry, without stirring. (Skim the top with a strainer to remove foam that forms on top.)

    5.    Add the agave nectar and raisins, stir, and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Reduce heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes, without stirring.
 

    6.    Add reserved 3/4 cup coconut milk and stir. Turn heat to moderate and boil for about 30 minutes, or until rice dries again. In this cooking period, turn rice over occasionally and scrape bottom of caldero.
    7.    Remove spices. Spoon rice into a flat serving platter. Allow to cool at room temperature then stick in the fridge.
    8.    This is served hot or cold.

Enjoy!!!!!