For years now me and Magnus have had a tradition of having Sunday brunches. They are like "our thing". Very seldom we ask other people to join us, and it's more like something we love doing just the two of us, together. I guess the tradition (if you can call it that) started when Magnus still worked as a bartender while I had normal office hours. The different working schedules meant that our shared free time was rare and Sundays were the only days that we were both at home by default. Magnus usually worked on Saturday nights and came home around 3 am so we slept late on Sundays and ate a late brunch taking our time and enjoying each others' company.
Now that we both have more normal (and adult) working hours we still enjoy making the brunch on Sundays. The brunches are nothing fancy, normally just fruit and berry smoothies, fresh bread, fried eggs and coffee, but we take joy in preparing it all together having no hurry or haste anywhere. It's the one meal of the week that both of us look forward the most, and no matter how simple the brunch it's my favorite moment of the week.
Lately I've been trying to empty our freezer of all the last summer's produce using up all the last frozen berries and rhubarb before it's time to stock it up again with this year's crops. We've been eating a lot of this type of porridge lately as it's really easy to make, healthy and works just as well as breakfast, lunch or a snack after work. Top it up with fresh fruit (or some more berries from the freezer) and a dash of milk, or just eat it as it is. Magnus prefers to warm his porridge up while I enjoy mine cold.
I've provided the recipe two ways: the traditional whipped berry porridge with semolina and a gluten free version with polenta. The latter doesn't whip up quite as light and fluffy as the traditional porridge, but that's just a question of appearance and doesn't affect the way it tastes. We usually make the porridge using lingonberries (aka cowberries) but you can use cranberries, currants, blueberries, strawberries or just about any berries you have at hand. The berries can be either fresh or frozen, although I usually only use frozen ones and eat the fresh berries as they are.
Whipped Berry Porridge:
serves 6
1.5 liters of water
3 dl of semolina or 2.5 dl of polenta
8 dl of berries, crushed
0.5-1 dl of sugar (depending on the berries you use and how sweet they are, start with less and add more if needed)
1/2 tsp salt
Bring the water to boil and while constantly whipping add the semolina, or the polenta if you are making the gluten free version. Let the porridge cook slowly for 5 minutes and then add the crushed berries, 0.5 dl of the sugar and the salt. Cook for another 5 minutes, check the taste and add more sugar if needed.
Let the porridge to cool down completely (I usually do it the night before, and let it cool over night in the fridge) before whipping it quite vigorously with an electrical mixer until it turns light in color and fluffy in texture. The whipping part is not necessary and you can just fine eat the porridge hot as it is or serve it cold with some milk.
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