Finnish Christmas Soup for Good Luck

Patrice Lyle, author

Here's the second recipe that our skullduggery snagged from author Patrice Lyle's secret collection of luscious Finnish recipes for Christmas Eve. As we promised, we're going to post one every other day leading up to Christmas Eve.

So stop back for some more wonderful Christmas treats.

Here's the second secret recipe:

Fruit Soup over Creamed Rice w/ the “Good Luck Almond”

Ingredients for the fruit soup (note: fruit soup is delish served over ham):

1 lb mixed dried fruits
2 ½ quarts water
1 cinnamon stick (note: can sub powdered cinnamon if you don’t have a stick)
1 cup sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP cold water

Simmer dried fruits in water with sugar and cinnamon stick until tender (about one hour). Dissolve cornstarch in the cold water. Bring soup to boil and stir in cornstarch mixture. Cook covered on low to medium heat until soup has thickened and is clear. Cool with cover on to prevent skin from forming on top. This is an easy recipe to make on Christmas Eve day and just keep warm on the stove. The rice (below) can be made the day before and refrigerated.

Ingredients for the creamed rice:

1 cup uncooked white rice
6 cups of milk (or nondairy substitute of Thai Kitchen Lite Coconut Milk)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup cream, whipped (or nondairy substitute Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk, not the Lite)
Cinnamon sugar mixture
1 almond to put in the bowl (very important b/c tradition has it that whoever gets the almond will have good luck in the upcoming year … but no digging through the bowl to find it allowed!)

Combine rice, milk, salt and sugar in top of a double boiler. Cook over boiling water for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until rice is creamy and milk is absorbed. Cool for about 30 minutes and fold in whipping cream. Then add the ‘good luck almond” and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

This recipe makes a lot! And people love the Good Luck Almond part!

And be sure to watch for Lethally Blonde starring Morgan Skully, the blonde demon who spies for the devil. It releases February 14, but you can preorder a copy at the Leap Books store.