December 4, 2018

Our 4h Yule surprise comes from Miss Lina. She wants to share a local Yule tradition and some recipes that go along with it! 's a tasty read!

Risgrøt and riskrem (rice porridge and rice cream)

One thing's for sure in Norway: Near yule, you need to eat "risgrøt" (rice porridge). Many eat it for lunch on Christmas Eve, but it goes down a treat both before and after too.

The rice porridge is pretty simple to make. You basically cook medium-grain white rice in milk for about an hour, until the rice is tender and the porridge has thickened, see recipe below.

Rice porridge ties in with yule for several reasons. First, it is the staple food of the "nisse", the Nordic yule version of garden gnomes, which might make an appearance later on in this calendar.

Second, while Norwegians eat this porridge all year round, near yule they throw a blanched almond into to the cooking pot. Whoever finds the almond in their bowl during the meal gets an early yule treat, traditionally a huge lump of marzipan shaped as a pig. This inevitably turns the porridge eating into pantomime, with everyone looking mysteriously at each other and acting like they found the almond. More often than not, though, the almond manages to split into pieces equalling the number of children sitting around the table. The pieces find their way into the bowls of said children, which means they won't go away disappointed from the table and cry and fuss a lot. This is obviously a miraculous outcome due to the magic of yule, and it has nothing to do with the cunning knife-work and spooning of porridge of the grown-up who prepares the meal and who would like to enjoy Christmas Eve with some peace and quiet, no no.

Third, rice porridge is the base ingredient of "riskrem" (rice cream/pudding, similar to the Danish risalamande), one of the more popular puddings for yule. Simple, fluffy, comforting, and oh so very very tasty.
The recipes below are rather basic/traditional. It is possible to spruce them up a bit too!

Rice porridge recipe:

Four servings:

2 decilitres medium-grain white rice
4 decilitres water
1 teaspoon salt
1 litre whole milk

Heat the water to boiling, then add the rice and the salt. Allow the rice to simmer on low heat for ca 10 minutes until the water is near absorbed into the rice. Stir regularly.

Then add the milk little by little, stir and reheat to boiling temperature. Then let the porridge simmer on low heat until suitably thick (ca 45 minutes). Stir frequently, so the milk and rice doesn't burn. Using a thick-bottomed cooking pot helps avoid this burning.

For serving, scoop porridge into a bowl, sprinkle with sugar and ground cinnamon, and add a spoonful of butter in the middle of the bowl. Enjoy! And watch out for the almond!

If you want a step-by-step description with lots of pictures, The Country Basket has a nice article on the making of the porridge.

Rice cream recipe:

Four servings:
500 grams rice porridge, cold
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
3 decilitres heavy/whipping cream

Whip the cream with the sugar until fluffy. Fold porridge into the cream until you get a nice fluffy consistency. Add vanilla sugar to taste.

Serve with a berry sauce. The Danes love cherry sauce, while us Norwegians often go for strawberry or raspberry based sauces. Sprinkling the cream with almond slices is also very nice.

For step-by-step instructions, have a look at The Country Basket again!

Pictures: The Country Basket