Arroz Doce, Irmã Adelaide Pires

This recipe is by far the best recipe for Portuguese Arroz Doce that I was ever able to glean from the people I met in Portugal. The secret ingredient, the one you cannot do without nor substitute is the lemon peel. Other than that, the most important thing to remember while making this dish is to allow the rice to become as soft as possible. Once you add the sugar, the rice is as soft as it's going to get, and who likes crunchy Arroz Doce? By the way, I find that short grain rice definitely works the best. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1.5 liters of water
Handful of salt (kosher salt if you have it)
3-6 strips of lemon peel (use a knife and take it right off the lemon)
1/2 liter of rice
1 liter milk (boiling)
500 g sugar
5 eggs yolks combined with an additional 100 g sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon

Cooking Instructions:
Boil the water, salt and lemon peel. Add rice when boiling. When rice is soft, add hot milk slowly while stirring. Add 500 g sugar while still on the stove. Taste for sweetness and add a little more sugar if necessary. Next, combine the egg yolks and the 100 g sugar in a small separate bowl. Slowly add small spoonfuls of the rice to the egg mixture and stir quickly so the eggs don't cook. Add enough rice to the mixture to bring its temperature close to the pot of rice. Then, carefully add the egg mixture to the rice and stir so you don't get scrambled eggs in your Arroz Doce. Dish into bowls or deep plates and top/decorate with cinnamon.