Danish Rice Porridge
A traditional Danish porridge of rice cooked slowly tender in whole milk, served with a pat of cold butter and cinnamon sugar sprinkled in the center.
The rice is first cooked tender in water, then the milk is worked in and the porridge simmers gently under a lid, while you only stir along the bottom now and then. Meanwhile, the cinnamon sugar can be mixed, and finally the porridge is seasoned to taste and served with cold butter. The calm, low simmer determines whether the porridge turns creamy without scorching.
Ingredients
The porridge
- 300 g pudding rice
- 4 dl water
- 1½ l whole milk
- 1 tsp salt
To serve
- 50 g butter, cold, in four pats
- 50 g sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
How to make it
- Bring the water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in the pudding rice. Cook, stirring, until the water is almost absorbed and the grains have swelled and look glassy and translucent at the edges.
- Pour in the whole milk a little at a time while stirring. Slowly bring the porridge to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly along the bottom, since milk and rice easily scorch there. The porridge is ready to simmer when the surface just barely starts to bubble. ⏱ 10 minChef's tip Adding the milk in stages keeps the pot from dropping to a standstill, so it comes back to a simmer without a long stretch of hot, still milk sitting on the base. Watch for the first lazy bubbles at the rim rather than a rolling boil.
- Cover the pot with a lid and turn the heat down as low as possible. Let the porridge simmer until the rice is completely tender and the porridge is so thick that it slowly slides off the spoon. Stir well along the bottom a couple of times along the way. ⏱ 45 min · passiveChef's tip Pudding rice is high in amylopectin, the starch that dissolves into the milk and makes the porridge creamy rather than soupy with separate grains. It thickens further as it cools, so stop while it still slides off the spoon a touch more easily than you want it.
- Stir the salt into the finished porridge and taste it. It should taste round and slightly sweet from the milk, with the salt clearly present underneath, since without salt rice pudding tastes flat and mealy.Chef's tip Adding the salt at the end lifts both the sweetness of the milk and the cinnamon forward, rather than making the porridge taste salty. Taste after each small addition: you're looking for the point where the porridge suddenly tastes like more of itself, not like salt.
- Mix sugar and ground cinnamon into cinnamon sugar in a small bowl, until the mixture is a uniform light brown with no white streaks.
- Divide the porridge among four deep plates and make a well in the center of each with the back of the spoon. Place a pat of cold butter in each well, so it melts into a golden pool. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar around the butter. The porridge is eaten from the edge inward toward the center, so each spoonful gets both melted butter and cinnamon sugar.Chef's tip Cold butter in a well melts slowly into a pool instead of vanishing into the porridge, which is what keeps each spoonful streaked rather than uniformly rich. Serve in deep, warm plates so the pool stays liquid to the last bite.
