Wishing you all a nice week ahead 😁

When I was a child, peddlers came and went advertising the homemade products they brought with a melody that eventually I came to know had anapestic rhythm in short catalectic verses, haha. It's true what I say. 'Arroz con coco' sounded "ro-co-CO-co," which sounded rather amphibrachic if you were really far away . This is pure poetry, friends, as is the taste of this snack, a favorite of my childhood, though I could seldom tease my parents to taste it from the hands of the vendor who strolled with his singing in the sunshine of my hometown, trading sweet cheer for ringing coins.

Sweet coconut rice pudding is an inexpensive dessert in Venezuela. I've just spent $1.2 to fill 3 half liter containers, enough for 12 people.

The so called gourmet versions may contain exotic ingredients or cow's milk like its original version which was probabbly the Spanish one you may know (it looks white), but the truth is that as many of our traditional desserts, sweet coconut rice pudding is peasant's food made with inexpensive ingredients.

This dessert is what some may call "vegan by accident,"--if that can BE, haha--and it's made with coconut milk; this makes perfect for me as it's free of lactose. Instead of sugar, Venezuelans added cane honey, which along with cinnamon and clove gave it its typical color and aroma.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups white rice
• 4 cups water
• 2 teaspoons cane sugar
• 1 dry coconut (800 gr approx) and its water to make 4 cups of coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups cane honey
• 2-4 teaspoons salt, to your liking
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 10 cloves

• Ground cinnamon for garnish

THE PROCESS

Cane Honey

A couple of days ago, I had melted one 750 gr piloncillo in a cup of water to get 900 ml of cane honey. I do this often so I always have cane honey in my fridge.

Rice

As I had cane honey ready to use in the fridge, I made the rice first. I always use a good quality rice because I like to feel the grains in my mouth, but it's a matter of taste; if the rice has a lot of broken grains then you get a stickier dessert. Some people love it that way.

I poured the 2 cups of rice and the 4 cups of water in the cooking pot.

I added the spices, salt, and sugar.

The rice cooked slowly over a low flame until the water dried. By then, it was time to add the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients.

While the rice was cooking, I made the coconut milk.

Homemade Coconut Milk

As usual, I burned the coconuts directly on the stove. I made a lot of milk because I was making other desserts (which recipes I'll share soon) 😄

I broke the coconuts easily and took the flesh out of the shell with the help of a knife because I don't have a special tool for it. Then I washed the coconut flesh and cut it into pieces small enough to be easily processed by my blender. I added the coconut water plus a little more as I considered necessary not to force the blender.

I put the mixture inside my yogurt dripping bag and squeezed to get the milk.

I got 2 liters of milk because I used 1.5 kg of coconut flesh. However, I'd be using only one to make the swee coconut rice pudding.

Mixing & Stirring

Once the coconut milk and the rice were done, it was time to mix and star stirring.

This is what it looks like right after turning off the fire, after stirring constantly for about 12 minutes.

After it cooled, I moved it to the fridge and let it set for about an hour. This is how it looked finally before I served it.

Omg, the aroma! The sweet flavor, the creamy texture... I really love this dessert.

SERVING

Typically, sweet coconut rice is served in small portions of about half a cup. I like to serve a cup per person.

I sprinkle some cinnamon...

And that's it! Time to eat 😋

Sweet coconut rice pudding has been one of my favorite desserts in the whole world since I can remember, and not only for Easter time. I've tried other versions, but so far, the traditional one is the one for me!

How about you? What's your favorite dessert for Easter time?

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

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