Icelandic rice pudding is savoury. Savoury? Why? Well, WE LIKE IT. Stop asking so difficult questions. Rice pudding is usually a sweet dessert in our neighbouring countries but we like it less sweet, though we confess it usually comes with sweet toppings, we’ll get to it later. 

Watch the video, please.

For some Icelandic lesson. Hrísgrjón means rice, or literally rice grain, and grautur means pudding or porridge. Hrísgrjónagrautur also goes by the name mjólkurgrautur or milk pudding. Since it’s boiled in milk.

Rice pudding is a relatively new thing for us. We’ve historically been eating porridges with oats, and barley all that other stuff but at the turn of the last century, we’ve been boiling rice in milk. It was mainly for rich people who could afford something as exotic as rice It was, of course, just about like everything, else brought to us by the Danes. But not as a savoury dish but as a desert. Something similar to Risalamande (or riz a la mande), milk-boiled rice with vanilla, almonds and cream. Named to sound french so the Danes would think it’s fancy. It worked. They love it and ate it at Christmas. But we loved it also and thought, wait why just for Christmas? Why not make it less sweet and eat it every week as food? Cut a long story short and we did. 

The rice that is usually recommended is short-grain rice. They usually get more soft and sticky and get a more pudding consistency. And they’re even sold as grödris, which is danish for pudding rice. However, long-grain is fine. We even used it in our video. Just use whatever is in your cupboard.

We usually have cinnamon sugar on top of the rice pudding and a bit of cold milk. Almost always. But feel free to do you. Caramel, raisins, nuts. Do whatever. Sometimes we opt for cold liver or blood pudding.

Rice Pudding

• 200g rice (1 cup)
• Water to cover the rice
• 1 l milk (¼ gallon)
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 cup raisins or handful or however much you like raisins. 

Cinnamon sugar

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 100gr sugar

Method: 

You can start by rinsing the rice if you like. 

Add your rice into a saucepan and cover with water. Season gently with salt. Turn the heat up to medium-low and once the milk starts to simmer add your milk. 

Simmer gently for about 40 minutes and stir occasionally. If you want to add raisins, add them when there are about 10 minutes left. 

Serve in a bowl and top with your cinnamon sugar and milk/cream if you wish!

Verði þér að góðu!

Ps. we’re on Instagram. See you there.