PERUVIAN ARROZ CON LECHE.

Rice is not native to the Americas but was introduced to Latin America by the Europeans at an early date with the Portuguese explorers that arrived to Brazil and the Spanish introduced its cultivation to several locations in Central and South America.
The origin of rice is buried in obscurity and the depths of time. Till today, we do not know when it was first discovered and perhaps this one fact we will never come to know. It is associated with wet, humid climate, though it is not a tropical plant. Puddling the soil and turning it to mud to break it down and prevent too much water running away and transplanting rice seedlings were refined in China. Both operations became integral parts of rice farming and widely practice to this day. With the development of puddling and transplanting, rice then was introduced in many civilizations in the the Old World, and it became truly a staple food that arrived very early to America lands during the process of Europe's great Age of Exploitation of new lands.
Brazil is Latin America's biggest rice producer, being the 9th larger producer worldwide and the biggest outside Asia.
Every country in Europe and Latin America claims this lovely pudding as their own, but some historians say this was a dessert known since ancient times in the Mediterranean lands. There, they cooked the rice in goat's milk and sweetened it with honey and dates. From this part of the world it found its way to the Middle East, and the Arabs introduced it in Europe, through Spain in the Middle Ages. The Spanish people who emigrated to the Americas brought their Arab cooks and recipes, along with sugar, rice and milk, unknown to the New World. With the passage of time it was improved with the touch of the flavor called Peru, the land of the king's food.
Peruvians are, and have always been fond of everything sweet. This dessert that sweetens life, Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding), is one of our favorites. Since the time that it arrived the Rice Pudding was and still is a staple in every household, in pastry shops and restaurants. Street vendors all over the country sell this comforting and delicious dessert served always warm, especially in winter time.
To this popular recipe you can add raisins, grated coconut, dried apricots, rum, amaretto or whiskey instead of vanilla essence.

Ingredients:
1 cup of white rice
7 cups of water
1/2 cup of orange peel.
1 tin evaporated milk
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cinnamon stick
7 cloves.
cinnamon powder
Preparation:
Pour water into a heavy saucepan with the cinnamon stick and the cloves. Bring to a boil for about 30 minutes in medium heat. Take away the orange peel and the cloves and add the rice and bring to a boil again in slow heat with a lead on for about 15 minutes.
Take the lid off and stir the mixture and continue cooking for about 10 more minutes in slow heat or until the water in no longer visible. Add the evaporated milk without stopping the stirring bringing it to a boil again until the mixture thickens again. Then add the sweetened condensed milk continuing the stirring until it gets creamy. Stir in the vanilla essence and pour the creamy rice into personal servings containers to let it cool. Sprinkle it with cinnamon powder and eat it cold or hot.
Preparation time: 5 minutes.  Cook time: 45 minutes.  Serves: 8

In Cuzco there is a different tradition for serving this dessert. It is served accompanied by a dessert made of from the purple corn, the king of the corns. Along the way it follows an Andean tradition called dualism where people around the world are organized into two parts that come together and make a whole. In this case the two served together are the white and the purple, the Europeans and the Andean people, rice and corn. This is like how Cuzco was divided in Inca times into Hanan Cuzco, the upper half and Hurin Cuzco, the lower half of the city.