Nitza Villapol, La Cocina Criolla & Arroz con Leche or a Rice Pudding Recipe

I used to think people that collect cookbooks have nothing better to do. Please, friends, take no offense to that gross assumption. It was me. I didn’t know better. I didn’t get it. I thought that owning cookbooks meant lack of creativity, thus the need to flip through pages of other people’s work. Even with our childhood cupboards taking up plenty of space with cookbooks covering every imaginable cuisine, theme and style, I didn’t get into them. Except for the one kids’ book that had a glossy and very inviting picture of none other than a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I remember that single page as if it were only recently that twin friends of mine and I were running around the  kitchen in angst, gathering our ingredients to make what was going to be our biggest culinary project.

Among all of the books Mami collected, the one deemed untouchable was Nitza Villapol‘s Cocina Criolla, (1954) or the Cuban Food Bible. Nitza was the Julia Child of Cuban cuisine; the one that popularized our food, and made cooking fun and approachable. Her debut book is considered the holy grail for those of us that cook. I seldom saw Mami flip through her original copy, but when she did, she’d be seated at the dinner table, taking her time (as in hours), and studying it like a culinary school book. She’d take notes, bend page tips, and underline sentences. Finally, she’d close the book and store it in its safe place. No one was allowed to touch it.

I never saw her use the book for our everyday and staple dinners. Not even for special recipes only made during holidays or important fetes. I’m not really sure (to this day) why she referred to the classic book.

I own a copy of the cookbook. One that she gifted me. I now understand Mami’s approach to using it. It was a mystery, but I get it. It’s a requisite for any Cuban home. Without it, your kitchen and skill set isn’t complete.  I seldom use mine, truthfully, but when I do, I sit with it and flip through the eggshell pages stained with black ink and illustrated with elementary outlined graphics, and read Ms. Villapol’s writing. She doesn’t tell a story with her recipes. She flat out tells you how to make a wonderful, tried and true dish with a lot of basic information. Most of the recipes are classic, not necessarily indigenous — another story for another day — and simple enough for the home cook. She even has multiple versions of the same dish; like 5 or so different flans. There are exceptions. One that stands out is her instruction for making an aromatic béchamel which you thicken and then fold until you have a soft and gooey dough for croquetas.

I recently found my Mami’s copy from 1972, before I was even thought of.  She brought it from Cuba and has never let it go. It’s torn, tattered, missing its binding and cover, solely  kept in tact with Scotch tape. The pages are now stained an unattractive yellow with liquid marks throughout. The book looks like it’s been passed down through 3 generations; not owned by only one person. Clearly, she used the book far more than I ever saw. And, hers tells a very distinct and delicious story. You can impinge how it goes.

While I’ve not deferred to Cocina Criolla for recipes or inspiration, I have found a lot of use in method. Things were done a bit different back then considering the time and lack of appliances and tools. It makes for great practice using minimal artillery! No fancy garlic presses or high wattage processors.

One of my favorite recipes in the book is arroz con leche. Simple, lovely, delicious and modifiable in so many ways. The dessert pictured here isn’t exactly her recipe which is the prototype and very basic. It’s my fusion recipe, though I’ve shared a more classic recipe before. And, this picture is about 3 years old — taken when I was working on my proposal for my own cookbook — which is on hold. It’s completely ironic that the styling of my arroz con leche has vintage effects, mirroring the age of Mami’s book.

Some things just fall right into poetic place. I’ve learned to appreciate, love and collect cookbooks. There are stories to be told in them. Even I have one to tell.

For now, I’ll continue to peruse the amazing collections of pages, black and white or color, illustrated or graphically designed with digitized images, and find inspiration from around the world in all the of the cookbooks I have. All 80 of them.

And, I’ll keep my copy of Cocina Criolla until it ages like the one that was {is} part of our kitchen resources.

Try Nitza’s recipe for arroz con leche depicted above (email me for translation)! Let me know what you think and if it’s anything like the one you’ve had or made yourself!

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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