Recipe: Risgrynsgröt (Swedish rice porridge)

Serves 4

- 1-¼ cups water

- ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt

- 3 1/3 cups milk

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 1 blanched almond

- Sugar

- Optional for serving: milk, cream, jam, ground cinnamon

1. Rinse the rice. Put into a pan with water and salt and let boil 5 minutes. Take off heat and set aside 15 minutes so rice absorbs more water.

2. Put pan back on stove. Add milk, cinnamon and almond, stirring now and then while porridge is cooking slowly until it has a "lagom" thickness (see note). Add sugar for sweeter taste. Serve with milk, cream, jam, ground cinnamon or whatever you like.

Note: "Lagom" is a Swedish word that can have many translations, such as just right, sufficiently, moderately, precisely or appropriately, There is no good "one-word" translation. The exact measurements are not that strict. It is simply rice that is being cooked for a longer time in milk. The longer it cooks, the better it gets. The ingredients can be doubled.

From Per-Ola Selander, of Kirkland