Joulukalenteri - luukku 5
One of the traditional Finnish christmas foods is riisipuuro, rice porridge. It is eaten with sugar and cinnamon, sometimes with sekametelisoppa, which is a plum juice/soup. The porridge itself is made from porridge rice, which is similar to sushi rice and risotto rice, because it has big round grains. When making the porridge, a single almond is added to the porridge and the eater who gets the almond may wish for something in the hopes that the magic of christmas will make the wish come true. If you want to make Finnish riisipuuro, here is a recipe, from https://www.martat.fi/reseptit/riisipuuro/
1 l milk || traditionally cow milk, but I use oat milk. Other plant based milks ought to work as well
2 dl porridge rice || sushi rice and risotto rice may work as well if you cannot find porridge rice
1 whole almond || if you're not allergic of course
1. Boil the water in a pot.
2. Add rice and stir. Wait until there is no water left.
3. Add the milk and stir, until it boils.
4. Cook for around 40 minutes and stir from time to time || remember to stir, you don't want the porridge to burn
5. Add the almond and serve with cinnamon and sugar.
Secret hack for those with rice cookers!
Alternatively you can make rice porridge in a rice cooker as well. That's how I do it nowadays, but this is not normal in Finland, because rice cookers are very rare. However, it is way easier because you do not have to worry about it burning. I usually make it so that I just add the water and milk to the rice cooker both at the beginning, and then put my cooker on an hour and a half porridge program. Works fine with me at least!
Also a fun fact! My name (Kaneli) actually means cinnamon in Finnish. This means christmas season is especially fun to me, because I get to hear constantly jokes about people either eating me in their porridge or accusations of cannibalism, because I eat rice porridge with cinnamon.
picture from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eppujensen/23961822862/
