Rice cooked in milk will have the consistency of a creamy risotto and the rice will also have the same firm al dente feel of a properly cooked risotto.

Rice cooked in milk served with a topping of sugar and cinnamon.

My favorite foods are the comfort foods my mother cooked for me when I was a child. These were simple foods, yet the feeling of them in my tummy then and the memories of love now, make them the foods I would give anything to have prepared one more time by my mother. Some were so simple I never bothered to ask my mother how they were made. My mother passed away nearly eight years ago, and with her went many recipes I’ll never have.

I started this blog five years ago for several reasons. One, because I started getting requests from friends to share the recipes of the food I was making. Two, I wanted to use it myself as a personal cook book or as an electronic recipe box where I could have all my recipes in one place. Most importantly though, I started this for my children so they would have the recipes of all their favorite foods after I was gone.

I share this recipe on Good Friday at the end of the Lenten season; Lent ended yesterday on Holy Thursday. My mother made this simple meal often during Lent when I was a child and it was one of my favorites. She would serve the rice with hard boiled eggs. The rice was topped with sugar and cinnamon making it a sweet treat for our evening meal. Rice and eggs seems like an odd combination, but it was actually quite ingenious. Although the meal was simple, it filled you up and was packed with protein.

This recipe is so easy. It is only three ingredients, yet I could never figure out how mom made this feel-good meal. I’ve come to realize that sometimes a recipe isn’t so much what goes in it, but rather the technique used to make it. The trick with this recipe is to add the milk in stages, not all at once.

Here is what I did:

Rice Cooked in Milk

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice
¼ tsp salt
4 cups whole milk (Approximately)

Directions

Begin by combining 1 cup of milk, rice, and salt in a large saucepan and bring to a low boil/simmer on medium heat stirring frequently. Once boiling, turn heat down to medium – low and cover. Keep a watchful eye on the rice and milk to prevent the milk cooking away and burning. As the rice absorbs the milk, keep adding milk ½ cup at a time until the rice becomes tender. Continue stirring frequently during this time until the rice is done which takes about 35 to 40 minutes. You want a very thick, creamy consistency to the rice and the rice to be tender yet still have a bit of a firm al dente bite.

Let cool a few minutes and then serve with sugar and cinnamon.