Danish rice and almond pudding (risalamande)

Christmas time is upon us and it's time for the last blog entry this year. I would like to use the opportunity to share again the recipe for rice and almond pudding (risalamande), a traditional Danish dessert that always gets many views on my old food blog in December. I remember seeing the pudding on the Christmas table in my childhood but it wasn't an annual tradition. The Danes have served the pudding at Christmas since the late 1800s and it has undergone some changes. I think I remember it correctly that the whipped cream wasn't added to the recipe until the era of the Second World War (1939-1945) when the price of rice got higher. A few years ago, when we were living in Copenhagen, my aunt and her Danish husband invited us to their home for a Christmas dinner and for dessert they served risalamande with organic cherry sauce, which was a wonderful combination. This was back in 2009 and since then the rice pudding has been on our Christmas table.

I serve the pudding on Christmas Eve, which is the day of celebration in the Nordic countries, when a festive dinner is enjoyed before the presents are opened. If buying the cherry sauce I would opt for an organic choice, free of refined sugar. Preparing the sauce is very easy. If I can get fresh cherries at this time of year I use 600 grams: Cut the cherries and remove the pits before mixing with 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup in a food processor. Pour it into a small saucepan, stir in 2-3 tablespoons of unrefined cane sugar and add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Let it simmer gently for 10-15 minutes until the liquid has mostly evaporated, but not to the point of having dried out. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and allow it to cool before serving.

You can also use frozen cherries: you will only need 300 grams that go straight into a saucepan with the syrup, sugar and lemon juice, and let it simmer longer. When the sauce is ready you can mash the cherries with a fork or a spoon before allowing it to cool. On Sunday I made the rice and almond pudding and for the sauce I used frozen mixed berries. It tasted wonderful and that's the sauce you see in the photos.

In this house the Christmas preparation is pretty much done and the smoked lamb (hangikjöt) is on its way from Iceland via express mail. Here in Scotland there is hardly any chance of white Christmas, even a bush by our dining room window has started to form buds. I would like to wish you Happy Holidays and my best wishes for 2016, and at the same time to thank you for all the blog visits this year.

On this blog, late in 2011, I mentioned the risalamande recipe (some write ris a la mande or ris à l'amande) and much to my surprise my readers were eager to view it, which is why I shared it on my old food blog. It is the recipe I got from my aforementioned aunt and her husband in Denmark and I have only made slight changes: I use more sugar because my children like it that way (they use half a tablespoon) and instead of blanched almonds I use almonds with the skin, which provides dietary fibre. I always prepare the pudding in the morning of Christmas Eve, as it needs time to cool, and the scent of vanilla that fills the house is heavenly. As I said before, I serve it with either organic cherry sauce or home-made. If you are interested in a lighter version of the pudding you can substitute the whipping cream for Greek yoghurt, or you can combine cream and yoghurt. At Christmas I always prepare the real thing, with the whipped cream.

RICE PUDDING (RISALAMANDE)

190 g pudding rice (scant 1 cup)
250 ml water (1 cup)
1 litre milk (4 cups)
1 vanilla pod
2 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea/Himalayan salt
75 g almonds (½ cup)
400 ml whipping cream (about 1½ cup + 2 tablespoons)

To make the pudding: Rinse the pudding rice (white short-grain rice) before boiling in 250 ml water (1 cup) for 2 minutes in a saucepan. Add the 1 litre of milk (4 cups) and bring gently to the boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer gently for about 35 minutes. Use a lid but tilt it to allow the steam to escape. (The cooking time applies to Danish grødris (pudding rice). Other type of rice could need longer time to cook. Most of the liquid should be absorbed and the rice should be soft.)

Before adding the vanilla pod to the saucepan you need to split it and remove the seeds. Use a sharp knife to split it lengthways and then scrape the seeds out with the knife tip (I use the seeds to make my own vanilla sugar with unrefined cane sugar).

When the rice pudding is done remove the saucepan from the heat and remove the two halves of the vanilla pod. Spoon the rice pudding into a big bowl, add the salt and sugar and stir gently. Cover the bowl and allow the pudding to cool in the fridge.

Chop the almonds with a knife or in a food processor and add them to the cold pudding. (You can use blanched almonds if you prefer. If you can't buy them then simply put them in a bowl of hot water and rub the skin off with your fingers.) Whip the cream (not too stiff) and gently stir it in.

Serve the pudding with cherry sauce or sauce with mixed berries.

Uppskrift á íslensku.

Rhubarb and strawberry crumble

You know those lame family jokes that I believe every family has a set of? My husband is the author of most of ours and even managed to make one about crumbles. Every time I'm preparing a crumble - rhubarb and strawberry is our favourite - he or any of the children can be heard singing a line from Adele's Bond song Skyfall, with slight changes. Instead of when it crumbles, they sing let it crumble. I know, terribly lame, but still it puts a smile on my face every time. I don't know what it is with a crumble baking in the oven, but it seems that ten minutes before it's ready everyone is already in the kitchen waiting, even walking around my farm table and peeking through the oven window. It must be the aroma. Crumbles are indeed comforting, even more so in autumn when the leaves have started to turn.

We are very fond of rhubarb crumbles with either fresh strawberries or blueberries, preferably both, but fresh plums and apricots are also wonderful. Instead of adding much sugar to the fruit and berry base, I use chopped semi-dried dates and only two tablespoons of sugar. Dates are naturally rich in sugar but they are also a good source of dietary fibre.

Most of you are probably used to plenty of butter in the crumble topping but mine contains none. I don't bake or cook with butter. I rub a bit of soft coconut oil into spelt flour and then I usually add ground almonds, or finely chopped, for that delicious crunchy texture. Walnuts and hazelnuts are also ideal.

When I was growing up I spent much time with my paternal grandparents. Their rhubarb bed in the garden was large and we ate the stalks like candy. The rhubarb was also used to make jam and my mother would often prepare a rhubarb pudding for dessert. Here in the UK, a rhubarb pudding looks like a cake - nothing like my mother used to make. I guess my mother's version could be called Nordic style rhubarb pudding. It was smooth like a thick soup or a smoothie, served warm with cream - sugary and delicious!

I had already posted a rhubarb and strawberry crumble recipe on the old food blog. In essence, this is the same recipe but the base is larger and I have added blueberries. You can replace the blueberries with more strawberries or other berries. We lived in Luxembourg when I put the recipe together and were so lucky to have rhubarb in the garden. I was inspired by a rhubarb and blueberry crumble recipe from my friend CafeSigrun that I had tried and loved. Remember her cookbook that I told you about? It just got published in Iceland. In fact, this morning I was listening to a live interview with her on an Icelandic radio station where she was introducing it. More on the book later. If you are expecting guests and want to serve the crumble for dessert you can prepare everything beforehand but wait with topping the base. Do so right before the crumble goes into the oven or else you will lose the crunchy texture that makes a crumble so tasty.

RHUBARB AND STRAWBERRY CRUMBLE

fruit & berry compote/base
400-450 g rhubarb
300 g strawberries
150 g blueberries
100 g semi-dried dates
2 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

crumble topping
50 g ground almonds or finely chopped
100 g white spelt flour
3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil, soft
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice or water

Fruit and berry base: Wash the rhubarb, trim off the leaves and chop the stalks into 2-2.5 cm chunks (about 1 inch) and put them into a large bowl. If the stalks are chunky chop them more finely. Rinse and hull the strawberries. Depending on their size, either halve or quarter the strawberries and add them to the bowl. Remove the stones, then chop the dates finely and add them to the bowl. Finally add the sugar, ground ginger and nutmeg and mix gently with a spoon. Set aside while preparing the crumble topping.

Crumble topping: If not using store-bought ground almonds, process whole almonds in a food processor. Set them aside. Combine the spelt flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the soft coconut oil and rub together with your fingertips (if it's warm and your coconut oil is in a liquid form then simply place it in the fridge before using). Add the ground almonds and orange juice and rub together a little longer.

Put the compote in a pie dish and spread it evenly (mine is 25 x 5 cm (about 10 x 2 in.) with sides that don't slope much). Top the compote with the crumble topping and bake at 200°C/400°F (180°C fan oven) for 30 minutes, until golden brown on top. If the top starts getting too brown, you may want to cover it with baking parchment or foil about ten minutes before the crumble is ready.

Allow the crumble to cool for a few minutes before serving with whipped cream, home-made vanilla ice cream or Greek yoghurt.

Uppskrift á íslensku.