December 16

Dec 23

“Ris a la mande”.  The Christmas dinner dessert. Cream is sold out in every shop.

Not everyone likes this traditional dessert, but I think most people likes the game wich follow, the search for the one and only almond. The winner gets a present, but it is not good behavior to announce that it has been found, before all the Ris a la mande has been eaten.

Dec 16

Risengrød – Ricepudding. Food for Nisser.

One of the songs we can sing when dancing around the Christmas tree, is telling about a Nisse who sits at the loft, with his ricepudding. The (nice) rats want to eat it too, so he has to defend his bowl of food with his big spoon. This song is clearly not as holy as one would expect at such an evening, I agree, but all children love to sing it, and happy children are a good way to keep the Christmas spirit awake.
Usually the song is chosen as one of the last to sing, when the level of seriousity has been practiced long enough.

Google translate and me, made this translation to give you an idea about the text:

På loftet sidder nissen med sin julegrød

On the loft sits Nisse with his Christmas porridge,
his Christmas porridge so good and sweet,
He nods, and he eats, and he is so happy
for Christmas porridge is his favorite food.
But all around him are all the little rats,
they watch and they watch:
“We want some Christmas goodies,”
and they dance, dance around the ring.

But nisse father he threatens with his big spoon
“Now get away
I want (to eat) my Christmas porridge in silence,
and I wont share it with anyone. ”
But the rats jump, and dance,
and (dance)
they look at the porridge, and then stops
and stand close to the nisse in a circle.

But nisse father he’s an angry stopper
and with his body he makes a jump:
“I’ll get the cat, if you don´t stop,
when the cat comes, this will ‘stop. ”
Then all the rats become so scared
oh so scared, oh so scared,
they turn around and dance a few times,
and one, two, three, they are gone!

 

December 17

Risengrød – ricepudding, porridge made out of rice, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, with a knob of butter in the middle. This is food for nisser, and almost every child, and a lot of grown ups. According to the Christmas tradition of nisser, it is important to place a bowl with risengrød on the loft, where the nisser lives. We still do that, just in case. Everyone knows how much confusion an angry nisse can create.

 

Recipe in english here

December 21

Risengrød – Ricepudding for people and for nisser. It is important to give the house nisse his rice pudding, otherwise he could be irritated and perhaps even mad. When we walk around the Christmas tree, we sing songs, one of them is about the nisse on the loft and his rice pudding. Well, I understand if you find such a song  a bit odd for Christmas eve, but the nisse is probably quite satisfied, and we got used to it.

Would you like to hear it? På loftet sidder nissen med sin julegrød

December 6

I promised Mrs. Uhdd to post the recipe for RISENGRØD, a kind of ricepudding, the favorite dish for all Nisser. Long time ago, rice was very exclusive food, and therefor the best thing to give the farm-Nisse in December, to prevent him from being mad, to tease – or in worst case to leave the farm and take all happiness away.

In December you can find many families place a little bowl with ricepudding at the ceiling, to please the nisse. The interesting part of this action is when the children later want to see how much the nisse has eaten. There is a lot “sneaking around at ceilings” in December, after childrens bedtime.

Now to the recipe. This rice is the type we call porridge-rice, not ordinary white rice. It takes about an hour to make the food, and about an hour to clean the pot, if you forget to look after the boiling milk.
190 gram rice
2 -3 dl. water
1 liter Milk
1 teaspoon salt

Served with sugar, cinnamon and butter. And of course a Nisse-beer.

Boil the water. Add rice into boiling water . Boil for 2 minutes. Add milk and salt. Boil about 35 minutes. That´s all.

The best part is adding sugar with cinnamon and butter…very tasty! No wonder that both nisser and almost all children love risengrød. Im nor sure about the sneaking folks.

From Wikipedia:

Nisseøl

Nisseøl (literally elf beer) is a dark, sweet hvidtøl (white beer) which is sold around Christmas time in Denmark. The name come from the nisser (mythical creatures of Scandinavian folklore) who are often depicted on the beer labels. It is not to be confused with julebryg, which is a much stronger Danish Christmas beer.

December 16

Two nisser helping each other carry the RISENGRØD. Christmas dinner has to be planned soon. The menu is:

Wikipedia:  In Denmark the traditional Christmas meal served on December 24th consists of either roasted pork, goose or duck. This is served along with potatoes, red cabbage and plenty of gravy. It is followed with a dessert of rice pudding, often with an almond hidden inside, the lucky finder of which is entitled to a present referred to as the almond gift.

Wikipedia forgot an important part of the dinner: the sugar-browned potatoes. Small white potatoes, covered with melted sugar, this will make them look brown, and the name is “Browned potatoes. They are made by melting sugar at a pan, until it looks brown, then put the boiled potatoes into, and turn them around until the sugar stick on them.

I also have to point out, that the MANDEL GAVE – almont gift , and the rules of how to get the almont, ( and especial how to get the gift), can course some discussions, if two familys are celebrating Christmas dinner together. For the most with laughter. The gift is traditionaly a marzipan-pig, with a red ribbon.

The dessert is not RISENGRØD, but RISENGRØD with whipped cream, vanilla, and almonds,- and cherry sauce.

December 3

Nisser is everywhere now. We can´t see them, but every house has a NISSE, and feeding him is very important. If he doesn´t get his food, he will start making trouble for you. Nisser eats RISENGRØD with sugar, cinnamon and butter. Nisser are living at the roof, (inside) and the dish with RISENGRØD have to be placed there. We can´t see NISSER, but some of the RISENGRØD disappear every night, so…

recipe:

200 gr. Rice (a round japonica rice)
1½ l. Milk
1 tsp. Salt

Boiling in about one hour. (Don´t leave it alone too long!)

When finish, put sugar and cinnamon on, and a piece of butter in the middle. All children love this food.