Arroz con Leche (Ilan Stavans)

If there is a Jew­ish Mex­i­can recipe that might be said to be my life­long friend, it is this one. We had it for Sukkot, but hon­est­ly, I have such pas­sion for it — and such a sweet tooth — that I’ve found ways for Sukkot to nev­er start or end. The com­bi­na­tion of white rice, milk and sweet­ened con­densed milk, gold­en raisins, a cin­na­mon stick, grat­ed lemon zest, and, on occa­sion, lemon peel, is a tri­umph. I recall com­ing back from the Idishe Schule and hav­ing it as a snack. My friends loved it. We would have a plate of it after play­ing fút­bol in the near­by park or while watch­ing the ever-pop­u­lar prime­time TV show Ches­pir­i­to. But I espe­cial­ly remem­ber savor­ing it in the sukkah under the stars (although, frankly, in Mex­i­co City, as pol­lut­ed as it is, the stars in the sky are more an aspi­ra­tion that a real­i­ty). My moth­er pre­pared it reg­u­lar­ly, and so did Inés López Caballero, the live-in help, who was an essen­tial pro­tag­o­nist in our fam­i­ly life. Arroz con leche is the taste of my childhood. 

Ilan’s fam­i­ly lived in Copil­co, a neigh­bor­hood in the south­ern part of Mex­i­co City, adja­cent to the cam­pus of UNAM (Uni­ver­si­dad Nacional Autóno­ma de Méx­i­co), the largest pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty in Latin Amer­i­ca and one of the most respect­ed. He cred­its this recipe with lur­ing many of his high school friends, who lived in far­away parts of the city, to his house after class for a suc­cu­lent por­tion of arroz con leche. Even though the dessert is a con­stant in Mex­i­can cui­sine, un no sé qué in the way it was made in Ilan’s home — lemon zest, a cin­na­mon stick, gold­en raisins — and how it made peo­ple expe­ri­ence myr­i­ad reac­tions. Although it has the tex­ture of a pud­ding, the key is to allow the rice to pre­serve its integri­ty and not disintegrate.

Serves 4

Prepa­ra­tion time: 40 minutes

¾ cup short-grain white rice (such as bom­ba or arborio)

2 ½ cups water, plus more as needed

1 cin­na­mon stick

¾ cup whole milk

½ cup sweet­ened con­densed milk

¼ cup gold­en raisins

1 ½ tea­spoons vanil­la extract

1 packed tea­spoon grat­ed lemon zest

Ground cin­na­mon, for dusting

1. Put the rice, water, and cin­na­mon stick in a medi­um saucepan set over medi­um high heat. Bring to a boil, then low­er the heat to medi­um and cook, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly (and more fre­quent­ly as the liq­uid reduces, to pre­vent burn­ing), until the rice is ten­der and the liq­uid has evap­o­rat­ed, 15 – 20 minutes.

2. Mean­while, whisk togeth­er the whole milk, con­densed milk, raisins, vanil­la, and lemon zest in a medi­um-sized bowl. Pour the milk mix­ture into the saucepan and con­tin­ue cook­ing, stir­ring often, until the mix­ture thick­ens, 5 – 10 min­utes. (It will con­tin­ue to thick­en as it cools, so err on the soupy side.) Remove and dis­card the cin­na­mon stick.

3. Trans­fer to serv­ing bowls and serve warm, dust­ed with ground cin­na­mon. Or let ful­ly cool, then cov­er and refrig­er­ate until chilled.

Brisket Tacos in Three-Chiles Sal­sa with Phyllis’s Rhubarb (Mar­garet E. Boyle)

Like many from LA, I want to eat tacos for every meal. Ide­al­ly, out­doors, in the sun­shine, and with a crowd. Anat Turko’s brisket prepa­ra­tion brings togeth­er a mari­nade of pasil­lo, ancho, and gua­jil­lo chiles for a per­fect blend of smoke and spice. For a sweet coun­ter­bal­ance, we’ve added my grand­moth­er Phyllis’s rhubarb sauce. It’s easy to pre­pare batch­es of these tacos to feed a crowd. The recipe is per­fect for a casu­al and fes­tive Sukkot meal out­doors (under the sukkah with paper chains & papel pic­a­do). We should enjoy foods that remind us to slow down, nour­ish com­mu­ni­ty, cel­e­brate hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and enjoy the chang­ing seasons.

This recipe fus­es dish­es pre­pared by two matri­archs in Ilan’s and Margaret’s fam­i­lies, Anat Nurko and Phyl­lis Poplaws­ki. Anat pre­pares the three-chile mari­nade as learned from oth­er women in her fam­i­ly, while Phyl­lis shares the rhubarb sauce joy­ful­ly passed down the gen­er­a­tions and enjoyed as an accom­pa­ni­ment to all the vari­eties of brisket she pre­pares. Both women describe the kitchen as a place that brings them peace and con­nects them to ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions while empha­siz­ing the joy they have in shar­ing and watch­ing their chil­dren and grand­child pre­pare these dish­es for their own fam­i­lies. When Mar­garet cel­e­brat­ed her first High Hol­i­days away from home dur­ing col­lege, Phyl­lis, her grand­moth­er, shipped her rhubarb and brisket in the mail. Brisket became pop­u­lar in Jew­ish cul­tures due to its afford­abil­i­ty and is now a sta­ple dish of most hol­i­day meals. When prepar­ing this recipe, con­sid­er wrap­ping the brisket and sal­sa in foil to sim­pli­fy the clean­ing process and enrich the fla­vor pro­file, as Margaret’s grand­moth­er Phyl­lis rec­om­mends. The com­bi­na­tion of tart rhubarb top­ping savory brisket is extra­or­di­nary, and the rhubarb sauce can be used as a com­ple­ment to oth­er prepa­ra­tions of brisket for fes­tive meals.

Serves 8 – 10

Prepa­ra­tion time: 45 min­utes, plus marinating

Cook­ing time: 4 hours

FOR THE BRISKET

3 cups water, plus more for cov­er­ing the chiles

3 dried pasil­la chiles

3 dried ancho chiles

3 dried gua­jil­lo chiles

4 medi­um plum toma­toes (about 1 pound), cored, seeds removed, and rough­ly chopped

½ medi­um white onion, peeled and rough­ly chopped

2 medi­um gar­lic cloves, peeled and rough­ly chopped

2 ½ tea­spoons kosher salt, plus more as needed

1 brisket (4 – 5 pounds)

FOR THE RHUBARB SAUCE

2 large rhubarb stalks, cut into ½‑inch pieces (about 2 cups)

⅓ cup gran­u­lat­ed sugar

¼ cup water

FOR SERV­ING

Small (6‑inch) corn tor­tillas, warmed

Chopped fresh cilantro

1. Place the pasil­la, ancho, and gua­jil­lo chiles in a medi­um saucepan and cov­er with water by a cou­ple of inch­es. (The chiles will float to the top.) Set the saucepan over high heat, bring to a boil, and con­tin­ue boil­ing until the chiles are soft, about 15 min­utes. Drain and let cool to the touch.

2. Wear­ing gloves, open each chile and remove the veins and seeds. Place the chile flesh and skin in a blender along with the toma­toes, onion, gar­lic, salt, and the 3 cups of water. Blend until smooth, then taste and add more salt, if needed.

3. Place the brisket in a large bak­ing dish or roast­ing pan, cov­er with the chile sal­sa, then cov­er tight­ly with alu­minum foil. Refrig­er­ate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

4. Heat the oven to 325°F. Place the brisket in the oven and cook for 2 hours. Remove the bak­ing dish, care­ful­ly flip the brisket over, and con­tin­ue cook­ing until fork ten­der, about 2 hours. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 30 min­utes before slic­ing or shredding.

5. Mean­while, make the rhubarb sauce: Com­bine the rhubarb, sug­ar, and water in a small saucepan set over medi­um heat. Bring to a boil, stir­ring often, and cook until the liq­uid thick­ens and the rhubarb is ten­der, 5 – 10 min­utes. Remove from the heat and let cool slight­ly, then use an immer­sion blender to purée until smooth. Allow the sauce to cool completely.

6. To serve: Arrange the brisket in corn tor­tillas and top each taco with a lit­tle of the rhubarb sauce and chopped cilantro.