Arroz Con Leche Milk Base

This will make approximately 2 batches of the Milk Base

Ingredients:

½ Gallon organic whole milk

½ Cup sugar

½ Cup Valencia rice or Arborio rice (I used Arborio)

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped*

Pinch of salt

Two dashes of Nutmeg*

10-15 whole Cloves*

Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat the milk, salt, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla bean. Heat the milk over medium heat stirring occasionally until it comes to a light boil. Add the sugar and the rice and reduce heat to medium low.

Cook stirring often for about an hour until the milk has reduced by almost half. We don't want the milk to boil, just lightly simmer (some small bubbles are ok).

Strain the milk through a fine sieve reserving the milk and discarding the rice, cinnamon stick, cloves and vanilla bean. (I strained this a few times and got some of the rice into the milk base for texture and to have more flavor).

Save for another use, if desired.

I got the recipe from cannelle et vanille (8/24/09 web) in the UK http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/08/arroz-con-leche-creme-brulee-and-cause.html

Side Bustin:
Trying to figure out the measurements were hard since I suck at grams converting to tsp, tbsp, cups etc.  So I scrounged around for various recipes on Arroz con Leche but kept the bulk of the milk on the high end.  You'll notice everything else is the same as his/her recipe except I added the scraping of Vanilla Bean, Nutmeg, and Cloves as well as reducing the sugar.