Risengrød
Danish Christmas Tradition: Nissen (a mythical creature of Scandinavian Folklore)
The Danish Nisse is a fictional character which has its roots from the 1800’s farming community. Nissen would help with the successful drift of the farm, that is, if you were respectful of the nisse and if you behaved yourself. A special dish which were served for Christmas is Risengrød. It may not seem special by todays measure, but back then milk, rice, butter, sugar and cinnamon was a commodity. And so, it makes sense that Nissen would be part of a festive event like Christmas.
Today, the Nisse folklore is still alive and well, but in a different way. Songs have been written about the Nissen and he’s often seen in Children’s Christmas calendars whether it be on TV or on paper. He is an important part of decorating for Christmas in Denmark and Risengrød is still his favorite meal. In the picture above, which is part of my Christmas Tree skirt, you can see the Nissen getting ready to eat his Risengrød.
Risengrød
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup rice (Grødris)
4 1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
butter
sugar
cinnamon
Directions:
Place water and rice in a medium cooking pot, cover with a lid and simmer for 2 minutes. Add milk, salt and vanilla sugar and simmer covered over low heat for 40-45 minutes. Stir often to make sure the milk does not burn, especially the last 30 minutes. You may have to turn the heat all the way down as low as your stove will allow for the last 15 minutes.
Mix sugar and cinnamon together according to your taste. Serve the Risengrød warm, sprinkled with sugar/cinnamon mixture and place a dollop of butter in the center, letting the butter melt.
Glædelig Jul and Merry Christmas♥
Source: My Danish Kitchen
My Danish Kitchen 
[…] Nisse (or Tomte in Sweden) is an easily offended Christmas sprite who demands rice pudding as a Christmas Eve offering. A bowl left outside the door the night before Christmas will prevent […]
[…] Recipe in english here […]
[…] medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring, until heated through. This recipe comes from My Danish Kitchen, written by Staci’s mirror image: a Danish woman named Gitte who is living in […]
Yum. I adore risengrynsgrott! I usually just make extra rice and use the leftover for my grot the next day.
My dad preferred rommegrott (bummer I don’t have the language pack with the o with the slash through it installed!!).
Thanks for sharing!!
Grødris are shortgrain rice, usually of the Japonica type. So if not in Denmark, head to your nearest Asian supermarket. It doesn’t even have to be the most expensive kind, Grødris are dist cheap compared to other rice in Denmark because it contains a higher percentage of broken grains than usually because in a porridge, it doesn’t really matter.
Rune
I just have to add that the recipe needs a pinch of salt, aaaaalways add a pinch of salt, making risengrød without leaves it rather bland tasting.
For advanced Risengrød, take of the heat half way to two thirds of the way through and wrap it in blankets or a duvet (do wrap it in a kitcken cloth first to avoid stains, though). Then leave it for an hour to finish up by itself. This will give you a creamier Risengrød.
Rune
a Dane and year round Risengrød eater (who always forgets the recipe and thus have to look it up on the net to get the rice to liquids ratio right)
Rune, you are correct, I left out the salt. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I have heard of wrapping it in a thick blanket but have never tried it. I’ll have to give it a shot next time. Yet another method I heard of, if you don’t want to stand by the stove for such a long period of time, is to bake it in the oven, covered, at 120 degrees Celcius for two hours, stirring it every 20 minutes. I have not tried this method either but it sounds like another good option as well.
Tak! I’ll be making this tonight for lille jul aften!
I have my rice bought and am planning on making Risengrød for Christmas eve. We always had this on Christmas Eve, before our main meal. I suspect that it was served like this to blunt the appetite a little, for those times when you had a large family and a lot of mouths to feed. We always hid an almond in it, sometimes two, depending on how many people were there for dinner. The prize, a marzipan pig and some chocolate. And if there was any left over Mom would make Riz alamande for Boxing day. And last but most certainly not least, we had to take a bowl of Risengrød, with lots of butter and cinnamon sugar on top, out to the barn for the Nisser so that they wouldn’t hide stuff from us during the year. Dad always had a wooden spoon for them to eat it with. Thanks for triggering those memories.
I am so glad the post brought back those memories. I hope you enjoy your Risengrød on Christmas Eve. 🙂
Just made this for dinner tonight! One of my favorite Danish Christmas Recipes!
This reminds me of rice pudding, and it looks very comforting.
Thanks for sharing something new to me, it sounds like the perfect Danish comfort food:)
Risengrød, one of the best things about christmas.. Yummi:)))
this looks very lovely..it is kinda like what my grandma used to make for me.. thank you for sharing your recipes..they are wonderful.
Risengrød is the best! I discovered it last year and fell in love with it. It’s so hearty and really the ultimate comfort food. Your tree skirt is great! Over the weekend we had a guest: Anton, the nisse doll from my son’s børnehaven. We tried to keep him out of trouble. 🙂
Watch out for those little nisser, they are all over my house right now. They’ll play all kinds of tricks on you…they like to hide things for me so I can’t find them…or maybe I’m just absent minded these days 🙂
I will be sure to keep an eye out for their tricks! 🙂
I absolutely love rice pudding and it sounds even more alluring in Danish! Your photography is beatiful!
Does this recipe require speciality rice? from the pic I can see the Danish package and the grains look like short grain rice..will any type of rice do?
I use a Danish grødris when I have it on hand, however, I have also used other types of rice and it turned out just fine. I would choose a short grain rice, like you said, for example Aborio, just don’t use any instant rice. I hope you enjoy it 🙂
I’m really loving this Danish series! Sometimes the simplest dishes can really be the best. This sounds like a delicious and satisfying dish.
I’m living in Denmark now and tasted this today for the first time. My team had our Christmas lunch and this dessert was served with a wonderful cherry sauce. So glad to have the recipe now.
Vanessa, was it served warm or cold? This dish Risengrød is served warm and it is also the first step in making my next upcoming dish Ris a la mande which is served cold with the traditional cherry sauce.
I asked about this today and learned that there was a difference. We had the Ris a la mande. The rice part is okay, but I really liked the cherry sauce. It would be great served with a New York style cheesecake.
You are always introducing me to new dishes…love it!
delicious we make similar without butter
looks wonderful
check out the event in my site
regards
It’s like a rice pudding with attitude!.. Love it!… Luna
I’m sur family my will love this. We make similar rice pudding but flavour with cardamom. This looks really delicious and comforting 🙂