During late summer/early autumn Finnish forests transform into a real gold mine, with all these tiny round berries all over the place. With Klaus we went several times to forest to pick as much berries as possible to stock up in freezer for winter. We are pretty satisfied as we now have a freezer containing around 40 kilos of berries, including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and lingonberries. Berries are great especially for breakfast. We often make smoothies with them, using them still frozen, straight from the freezer, or to top oat porridge with some honey.
Whipped lingonberry porridge, vispipuuro in Finnish, is really common in Finland. It is served as a dessert, as a afternoon snack or even as a morning breakfast. The color is so pretty and the texture is so smooth and enjoyable. I wanted to add to this porridge a little different note and I did it with rosemary, which gives a nice aftertaste and brings this pinky fluffy dessert to next level. You could easily serve it with a glass of bubbling dessert wine at the end of a fancy meal and you would do great.
I know, lingonberries are something you cannot find everywhere in the world. That’s why I would be curious to know if you try it with other berries, like cranberries and blueberries! In my opinion, this porridge tastes best after one night in refrigerator, so if you have a party, I would make it the day before, which is also very practical, since you can forget about it till the serving time.
Ps. In this recipe I measured everything, even solid ingredients in dl, like in the Finnish style. I usually don’t approve of this method, but in this case it’s really practical, as you need just one measure for everything.
Yum
- 3 dl of lingonberries
- 1 l of water
- 1 dl of semolina flour
- 1 dl of sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 2 rosemary twigs
- Put in a saucepan the lingonberries, the water and the rosemary twigs and boil for 10 minutes.
- Add sugar and salt and mix.
- Add the semolina flour and mix constantly for 7 minutes.
- Let the porridge cool off in room temperature.
- Once the porridge is completely cold, whip it for some minutes. You'll notice that the color of the porridge will change from a dark pink to a lighter hue.
- Serve it cold with milk or cream.
- You can store the porridge in refrigerator for two or three days.
