Porridge for workdays and festivals – and some for the gnome in the stalls

Rice porridge is most often eaten with cinnamon and sugar, and some milk. It’s also good with syrup, butter, jam or a sauce made with fruit juice.

In olden days they used to put out a bowl of porridge for the farm gnome, who people believed kept an eye on the animals in the stalls. It was important not to get on the wrong side of him.

If you have left-over rice porridge, make ”ris à la Malta”, a delicious dessert.

Rice porridge

6 portions

Ingredients:

3 dl water

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp butter

3 dl round-grained rice

1 cinnamon stick

1 l milk

Method:

1. Boil up water with butter and salt in a large pan.

2. Add rice and cinnamon stick, then stir. Put a lid on the pan and boil until the water has almost boiled in, about 10 minutes

3. Pour milk in slowly, stirring all the time, and let it almost come to the boil.

4. Cover with a lid. Let the porridge simmer over a low heat until it has thickened and the grains of rice are soft (about 30–40 minutes).

Ris à la Malta

Cold rice porridge with whipped cream, flavoured with sugar and vanilla sugar. Can be decorated with pieces of orange, tinned mandarine segments etc.

There are different theories about the origin of the name. One is that it is a mistranslation of the Danish ”Risalamande”, from the French ”Riz à l’amande”, rice with almond. Another theory is that there used to be oranges in ris à la Malta. The expression ”à la Malte” (or maltaise) means that something is made with oranges or orange peel. Les maltaises are a type of orange from Malta.

Ingredients

4 portions

4dl. cold rice porridge

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsk vanilla sugar

2 dl double cream

2 oranges

Method:

1. Whip the cream and stir it evenly into the rice pudding.

2. Taste the mixture. Add more sugar if rquired.

Garnish with pieces of orange, mandarine segments or other fruit.