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.

A love story by Antonia Fraser | Quinoa dessert

Recently I crossed one book off my list when I read Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser. If I were to describe it in only a few words I would say it's a beautiful love story, one of the most intimate ones I have read. Fraser uses her diaries to tell about her life with playwright Pinter, from the day they met in 1975 to the day he died in 2008. And what a life they shared! I would like to tell you just a little bit about the book and also republish my recipe for quinoa pudding with Greek yoghurt, berries and fruit.

It's no secret that both Fraser and Pinter were married when they met and the press fed on their 'literary friendship', as one paper put it. Things got complicated until both got a divorce and in one entry Fraser refers to a devoted friend of both who 'thought all this romantic talk about marriage was nonsense; why couldn't we just have an affair like everyone else?' (p. 29). It cracked me up.

I often laughed or smiled during the reading. Mainly the diary entries tell the story but sometimes Fraser comments on them and, personally, I would have liked to see more of that. Fraser has a beautiful way with words and I like her unpretentious style. She gets right to the point, unafraid of exposing herself and often describes things in a comic way. I loved the book but I would have been more satisfied with a longer one.

It's obvious that the book ends with Pinter's death, yet when I reached that final page I was so immersed in their love story that my heart was crushed when it was all over.

I cannot say that I knew much about Pinter, except that he was a playwright and a director and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. In person, as described by Fraser, he was nothing like I had imagined and now I'm eager to read the biography, Harold Pinter by Michael Billington.

Just a few more lines about books before dessert. I have already told you about my love for author Helene Hanff (1916-1997), in my posts about 84 Charing Cross Road and Letter from New York. Since then I have also read Q's Legacy (spotted in my images), which is just as wonderful as the others. Parts of it are a repetition of what Hanff has already said in earlier works but I wouldn't let it stop me from reading it too.

I have stated earlier that I would like to keep all my recipes in one place and this quinoa pudding, which I often make during the warmer months, is from my old food blog. Food blogger and writer Aran Goyoaga of Canelle et Vanille was my inspiration when I put the recipe together. She had used milk to cook the quinoa but I use water and then Greek yoghurt for the pudding itself because of its creamy texture. The recipe is simple but you have to boil the quinoa first and allow it to cool for about an hour. You can top the pudding with any kind of berries and fruits. Please note that I'm serving the pudding as a dessert for five people.

QUINOA PUDDING WITH GREEK YOGHURT, BERRIES AND FRUIT

200 g quinoa (1 cup)
625 ml water (2½ cups)
a pinch of sea salt
250-300 g strawberries (circa 1½ cup)
½-1 tablespoon unrefined cane sugar
2 peaches, nectarines or apricots
450 g Greek yoghurt
2 teaspoons organic vanilla sugar
1½-2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
to garnish: almond flakes or chopped almonds or walnuts

Rinse the quinoa thoroughly under running water to remove the coating, which contains the bitter-tasting saponins (sometimes I let it soak in water for about 30 minutes before rinsing, depending on the type I use).

Put the quinoa in a medium saucepan with water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil on the highest heat, then reduce it to the lowest and cook for about 20 minutes. Use a lid but let it tilt slightly to allow the steam to escape. When the quinoa is cooked, transfer to a bowl and allow to cool for about an hour.

Hull and dice the strawberries. Put them in a medium bowl and sprinkle them with ½-1 tablespoon unrefined cane sugar. Allow to sit at room temperature while the quinoa is cooling.

To make the pudding: Combine 350-400 g Greek yoghurt, vanilla sugar and maple syrup in a large bowl. Fluff the quinoa gently with a fork before adding it to the bowl.

Dice the fruit and chop the almonds/walnuts finely, if using.

To serve, ladle the pudding into dessert bowls or glass jars. Add strawberries on top and then fruit. Top with the rest of the Greek yoghurt and almond flakes or chopped almonds/walnuts.

Uppskrift á íslensku.