This rice porridge will blow your tongue away

Anna Perho eats her rice porridge with caramelized fruit. Roni Lehti

A year ago, journalist and entrepreneur Anna Perho and his family spent his first Christmas in his own house in Ypäjä.

One dream came true when the immediate family gathered for a rice porridge lunch on Christmas Eve.

This Anna Perho rice porridge can be said to be a step better, because it is cooked in apple and pear broth and red milk – and cream is drizzled over it.

Instead of the traditional mixed fruit soup, caramelized fruits are eaten with the porridge.

Perho found the recipe for vanilla rice porridge online Hanna Sumarin from the blog. Perho reduced the amount of sugar, removed the yogurt and also caramelized the apple.

– I don’t develop dishes myself, although I love cooking and food. Some professional has already thought out the recipes. I can only apply them a little.

Vanilla rice porridge and caramelized fruits

Stewed fruits:

2 peeled pears

2 peeled apples

1 liter of water

2.5 dl of sugar

1 dl (60 g) roughly chopped fresh ginger

2 vanilla pods split and seeds removed

1. Boil the peeled fruit until soft. Start with the broth.

2. Heat a liter of water to boiling and then add sugar, ginger and vanilla pods and seeds. Cook the mixture on low heat for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the peeled whole pears and apples to the pot and let them simmer in the broth on low heat until they soften. Test for ripeness with a thin, sharp knife, it should go through the fruit easily, but they shouldn’t fall apart. It is impossible to determine the cooking time because it depends on the ripeness and size of the fruit.

4. When the fruits are ready, take the pot off the stove and let them cool in the broth while you make the porridge.

Rice porridge:

5 dl whole milk

2 dl of pear and apple broth

2 dl of porridge

0.5 dl of sugar

1 vanilla pod split and seeds removed

1.5 dl of cream

1. Mix two deciliters of pear broth and five deciliters of red whole milk in a porridge pot and add sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, and rice.

2. Cook the porridge on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Porridge easily burns to the bottom, so it’s not worth leaving the pot.

3. When the porridge starts to thicken, add cream. Let the porridge simmer slowly until the rice is soft. Keep the porridge warm while you caramelize the fruit.

Caramelizing pears and apples:

25 g of butter

1 dl walnuts

1. Take the fruits out of the broth and drain them well. Split the fruit lengthwise and remove the seed pods by carving with a small spoon or sharp knife.

2. Put the butter in a frying pan and heat it until it bubbles. Put the fruit, cut side down, in the pan to fry. Let the fruits fry until their surface and edges caramelize and turn a nice brown. Finally, add walnuts and a few tablespoons of fruit stock to the pan.

Recipe: Hanna Sumari