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Nisser, Rice Pudding and the Night Before Christmas

December 23, 2010 by libertatemamo 20 Comments

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
One of our many RV kravelnisser making mischief as they do...

The Night Before Christmas is a wonderful poem, but Clement Clarke Moore clearly wasn’t visiting a Dane. You see in Danish Christmas we have nisser everywhere and these little guys like to make mischief, especially tonight. Our RV may be parked in Florida, but I’ve still got a well-founded respect for these little guys so we’ve been diligently working to get things ready for tonight.

Nisser are a type of mythical troll or elf traditionally part of Scandinavian rural folklore. They bring good luck but are also whimsical and extremely mischievous, unless that is you keep them happy. Traditional rice pudding is the magical elixir so there’s many a Dane that will make up a good portion the day before Christmas Eve and leave a bit out to keep the little guys happy. Then, on 24th we’ll make a desert (ris-a-l’amande) with the leftovers.

Making rice pudding

We’ve got the rice pudding done and hope nisserne will be good to us tonight. 

If you didn’t get the chance to make your own here’s the original recipe from 1955’s edition of Lærebog I Huslig Økonomi. This will make enough for 4 people or 2 people and a houseful of nisser.

Ingredients:

  • 250g round/pudding rice (grødris eller runde ris).  Sushi or arborio rice can be substituted
  • 2 liters full-fat milk (sødmælk)
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation (~1 hour):

  1. Rinse the rice: Rinse the rice and allow to dry on a sieve.
  2. Boil the milk: Bring the 2 liters of milk to a rolling boil under med-high heat. Stir the milk during this process to keep it from burning, and keep a close eye to prevent the milk bubbling up over the edge of the pot.
  3. Add the rice: Add rice and keep stirring until the milk is boiling again. Continue stirring for an extra 5 mins once boiling.
  4. A happy nisse is a good nisse
  5. Boil the rice: Reduce the heat to low and allow the mixture to bubble slowly for ~1 hour. Check the pudding and stir periodically to make sure it’s not going too fast, or getting burnt. At the very end of cooking add the salt. The final result will be a thick, rich pudding ready to eat hot off the stove!

With a bit of luck nisserne will enjoy the treat and be back next year to visit too.

Eat well and sleep tight, my little friends…

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We LOooVE Comments, So Please Do

  1. Linda Sand says

    December 24, 2010 at 8:37 am

    What fun to get multiple culture’s traditions into your holidays. I don’t care for rice pudding so the nisser can have mine.

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      December 24, 2010 at 9:56 am

      Oh goodie! I’ll have more left over for the little fellows then 🙂 So far so good…the RV is still intact as of this morning. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jerry and Suzy LeRoy says

    December 24, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Don’t know about Nisser, but here southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico, the trickster and fun maker is called Kokopelli. He is an ancient Native American god of fertility, so the young girls are scaird of him. Kokopelli hides things so I can’t find them. As far as I know, he’s not fond of rice pudding, but then we’ve never offered him any. But we are fond of rice pudding, so maybe we’ll give it a try! Thanks fior the recipe!

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      December 24, 2010 at 10:40 am

      Oh, I do love folklore! What a wonderful story. Thanks so much for sharing. Lemme know if the rice pudding works 🙂

      Reply
  3. Candace says

    December 27, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Cuban style rice pudding is awesome also. They sometimes add raisins. Cuban Rice Pudding is of the things I miss most from SoFla …. along with Markham Park. Hope your Christmas was warm and wonderful !

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      December 28, 2010 at 7:37 pm

      Oh yes, I LOVE Cuban rice pudding 🙂

      Reply
  4. Bob F. says

    December 30, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    Nina,

    Enjoyed reading your post about the Nisser. What I want to know is how these Danish Nisser found you in Florida? Does that say something about our border security 🙂 Thanks for the receipe, I’m going to try it.

    Regards,

    Bob F.
    Bend, OR

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      December 30, 2010 at 5:32 pm

      The little guys just seem to find me everywhere. It’s a darn mystery 🙂 If you do make the pudding you can top it with either sugar, butter, cinnamon or before munching….very tasty. Nina

      Reply
  5. Julia says

    December 31, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    I love rice pudding ! And being Irish I know what troubles the little people can bring and their little snickers can drive you crazy!!!
    Happy Trails

    Reply
    • libertatemamo says

      January 1, 2011 at 10:52 pm

      So true! That’s something we share in common 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Getting Into the Christmas Spirit…And a Few Exciting Repairs | Wheeling It says:
    December 17, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    […] next week, as we approach Christmas Eve I’ll also be inviting kravlenisserne (Danish Christmas Elves) back into the rig to create mischief. I really have no choice in the matter since they inevitably […]

    Reply
  2. Christmas Elves And A Gift of Hearts | Wheeling It says:
    December 23, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    […] making merry and taking things apart, as they do. Thankfully I’m prepared and already making rice pudding which should hopefully keep them busy for the night. We’ll […]

    Reply
  3. A Mini-Reveal, A Mini-Gathering…And a Merry Christmas! | Wheeling It says:
    December 23, 2012 at 11:26 am

    […] In the meantime I’ve got plenty of prep-work for the holidays including making traditional Danish rice pudding (tonight) and Ris-a-la-Mande (tomorrow), keeping the RV Christmas Elves in check (they’re […]

    Reply
  4. A Mini-Reveal, A Mini-Gathering…And a Merry Christmas! | Wheeling It says:
    December 6, 2013 at 3:34 am

    […] In the meantime I’ve got plenty of prep-work for the holidays including making traditional Danish rice pudding (tonight) and Ris-a-la-Mande (tomorrow), keeping the RV Christmas Elves in check (they’re […]

    Reply
  5. Sunrises & House Sale Pics From SW France – Wheeling It says:
    December 23, 2015 at 10:55 am

    […] of family and warm hearts. We’ll be having a joint Brit-Dane Christmas including the traditional rice pudding for dinner tonight (gotta keep those nisser happy), a fine English roast on Christmas Day and a […]

    Reply
  6. Thanksgiving Week & Arrival At Our Winter Digs – Lithia & Ft. Lauderdale FL – Wheeling It says:
    December 1, 2016 at 11:56 am

    […] very soon) and I’ll be throwing myself into decorating “the beast”, appeasing the ever-mischievous RV”nisser“ (very important) & procuring all the various food stuffs we enjoy for Christmas. With my family […]

    Reply
  7. Glaedelig Jul to Everyone! – Wheeling It says:
    December 24, 2016 at 11:03 am

    […] folk traditionally have our big Christmas celebration so yesterday evening I made the special nisser-appeasing rice pudding and this morning I whipped it up into my drool-inducing ris-a-l’amade desert. The flavors of […]

    Reply
  8. 2017 RVer Christmas Gift Guide -> Awesome RV Gear For Every Occasion – Wheeling It says:
    December 5, 2017 at 9:36 am

    […] but I am going to play non-stop Christmas music (yes, I’m one of those people), make traditional Danish Christmas food (yum!) and enjoy solid family time with those I love the most. What could be […]

    Reply
  9. Merry Christmas! – Wheeling It says:
    December 24, 2017 at 9:00 am

    […] us, so we’re having a lovely family Christmas over here on the other side of the pond. The rice pudding is made, the nisser are happy and we’ve got the tree up with all our traditional Danish Christmas […]

    Reply
  10. Paw Updates, Health Insurance Reminders & Christmas Feels – SW France – Wheeling It says:
    December 16, 2019 at 2:59 am

    […] (which, for those of you who might be curious I always get from hjemve.dk) and are working on keeping our local nisser happy. It’s a fulltime […]

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