Porridge - Varieties

Varieties

• Oat porridge (oatmeal), traditional and common in English-speaking countries, Nordic countries, and Germany. Oat porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5,000 year old Neolithic bog bodies in Central Europe and Scandinavia. Varieties of modern oat porridge include:
  • Groats, a porridge made from unprocessed oats or wheat.
  • Owsianka, a Russian and Polish traditional breakfast made with hot milk, oats and, sometimes with sugar and butter.
  • Rolled oat porridge is common in Scotland, England, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Scandinavia. It is known as simply "porridge" or, more commonly in the United States and often in Canada, "oatmeal".
  • Steel-cut oat porridge is common in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. The oats are often pre-soaked overnight.
  • Terci de ovăz, traditional oatmeal in Romania.
• Maize porridge:
  • Atole, a Mexican dish of corn flour in water or milk.
  • Champurrado, or "atole de chocolate", a Mexican blend of sugar, milk, chocolate, and corn dough or corn flour. A similar Philippine dish, "champorado", often substitutes rice for the maize.
  • Cir, Păsat, or (when firmer) Mămăligă are all Romanian maize porridges.
  • Cornmeal mush, a traditional dish in southern and mid-Atlantic US states.
  • Dalia or Daliya, an Indian and Pakistani maize porridge.
  • Gofio, a Canary Island porridge of toasted coarse-ground maize.
  • Grits, ground hominy or ground posole, is common in the southern United States, traditionally served with butter, salt and black pepper.
  • Kachamak, a maize porridge from the Balkans.
  • Polenta, an Italian maize porridge.
  • Rubaboo is made from dried maize and peas with animal fat, and was a staple food of the Voyageurs.
  • Shuco, a Salvadoran dish of black, blue, or purple corn flour, ground pumpkin seeds, chili sauce, some red cooked kidney beans, which was traditionally drunk out of a hollowed-out gourd at early morning, especially coming from a hunting or drinking trip.
  • Uji, a thick East African porridge made most commonly from corn flour mixed with sorghum and many other different ground cereals, with milk or butter and sugar or salt. Ugali, a more solid meal, is also made from maize flour, likewise often mixed with other cereals. These two, under various names, are staple foods over a wide part of the African continent, e.g., pap in South Africa, sadza in Zimbabwe, nshima in Zambia, tuwo or ogi in Nigeria, etc., though some of these may also be made from sorghum.
  • Žganci, a maize porridge prepared in the Kajkavian countires and Slovenia.
• Pease porridge or peasemeal porridge, made from dried peas, is a traditional English and Scottish porridge.
• Potato porridge, eaten in Norway, is a thick, almost solid paste made from cooked potatoes mixed with milk and barley.
  • Helmipuuro ("pearl porridge") is a porridge made from grains of potato starch swelled in milk into ca. five-mm "pearls", traditionally found in Russia and Finland.
• Tsampa is a toasted grain flour, usually barley, eaten in Tibet, often mixed with tea and butter.
• Wheat porridge:
  • Cream of Wheat or farina.
  • Dalia, a simple porridge made out of cracked wheat, is a common breakfast in northern India and Pakistan. It is cooked in milk or water and eaten with salt or sugar added.
  • Frumenty, a boiled wheat porridge eaten in Roman times, sometimes with fruit or meat added.
  • Gris cu lapte (Romania), dessert made with semolina boiled in milk with sugar added, sometimes flavored with jam, raisins, dried fruit, cinnamon powder, etc.
  • Mannapuuro, a traditional Finnish dessert made with semolina.
  • Semolina.
  • Sour cream porridge, a Norwegian porridge of wheat flour in cooked sour cream with a very smooth and slightly runny texture. It is served with sugar, cinnamon, cured meats, or even hard-boiled eggs depending on local custom.
  • Upma, a fried semolina porridge traditional in southern India, flavored with clarified butter, fried onions, toasted mustard seeds, and curry leaves, and often mixed with vegetables and other foods, such as potatoes, fried dried red chilis, fried cauliflower, and toasted peanuts or cashew nuts.
  • Velvet porridge or butter porridge, a Norwegian dish: a generous amount of white roux is made from wheat flour and butter, adding milk until it can be served as a thick porridge.
  • Wheatena, a brand name for a whole-wheat porridge.
• Rice porridge:
  • Congee, a common East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian dish of boiled-down rice:
    • In Sri Lanka congee is prepared with many ingredients. As a porridge, Sinhala people mainly use coconut milk with rice flour, it is known as "Kiriya."
    • Chinese congee, called zhou in Mandarin, and juk in Cantonese, can be served with a century egg, salted duck egg, pork, cilantro, fried wonton noodles, or you tiao, deep-fried dough strips.
    • Indonesian and Malaysian congee, called bubur, comes in many regional varieties, such as bubur sumsum, made from rice flour boiled with coconut milk then served with palm sugar sauce; and also bubur manado or tinutuan, a rice porridge mixed with various vegetables and eaten with fried salted fish and chili sauce.
    • Japanese congee, called kayu, is mixed with salt and green onions.
    • Korean congee, called juk, can have added seafood, pine nuts, mushrooms, etc.
    • Thai congee, called "khao tom" (ข้าวต้ม), can have added coriander, preserved duck eggs, fish sauce, sliced chili peppers, pickled mustard greens or salt cabbage preserves, red pepper flakes, etc.
    • Vietnamese congee, called cháo, can be made with beef or chicken stock and contains fish sauce and ginger. It is often served with scallions, coleslaw, and fried sticks of bread.
    • Philippine congee, called lugaw or arroz caldo, contains saffron, ginger, and sometimes meat. Less common ingredients include boiled eggs, pepper, chilies, puto, lumpiang toge, tofu, fish sauce, calamansi sauce, toyo, and spring onions. It is common as a street food.
  • Cream of Rice, a brand of American rice porridge, boiled in milk or water with sugar or salt.
  • Kheer (or Ksheer), a traditional Indian sweet dish, made of rice boiled in milk.
  • Rice pudding (or porridge), sweetened rice porridges usually made with milk and commonly flavored with butter and baking spices such as cinnamon. In Nordic countries, it is a traditional breakfast for Christmas Eve.
  • Risotto, an Italian rice porridge cooked in broth.
  • Rizogalo, a Greek traditional rice porridge, made of rice boiled in goat or sheep milk and served sprinkled with cinnamon.
  • Tsampurado, a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter.
• Buckwheat porridge, made of buckwheat in butter, is eaten by many people in Russia, with yoghurt more common in the Caucasus.
  • Terci de hrişcă, buckwheat porridge from Romania.
• Quinoa porridge.
• Millet porridge:
  • Foxtail millet porridge is a staple food in northern China.
  • A porridge made from pearl millet is the staple food in Niger and surrounding regions of the Sahel.
  • Oshifima or otjifima, a stiff pearl millet porridge, is the staple food of northern Namibia.
  • Middle Eastern millet porridge, often seasoned with cumin and honey.
  • Munchiro sayo, a millet porridge eaten by the Ainu, a native people of northern Japan.
  • Milium in aqua was a millet porridge made with goat's milk that was eaten in ancient Rome.
  • Koozh is a millet porridge commonly sold in Tamil Nadu.
• Sorghum porridge:
  • Tolegi, a sorghum porridge eaten as a midday meal during the summer in New Guinea.
  • Tuwo or ogi, a Nigerian sorghum porridge that may also be made from maize.
• Rye porridge:
  • Rugmelsgrød, a traditional dinner of the Danish island Bornholm, made of ryemeal and water.
  • Ruispuuro, a traditional Finnish breakfast.
• Flax porridge, often served as part of a mixture with wheat and rye meal. Red River Cereal and Sunny Boy Cereal are common brands in Canada.
• Mixed grain and legumes in Ethiopia:
  • Genfo is a thick porridge made by lightly roasting, milling and cooking any combination of Ethiopian oats wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, maize, chickpeas, yellow peas, soybeans or bulla, the starch from the root of the false banana tree; it is traditionally eaten for breakfast with a dollop of clarified, spiced butter (kibe) or oil and chili-spice mix berbere, or with yoghurt. For those who can afford it, it is a popular holiday or Sunday breakfast dish and is often given to pregnant women and women after birthing to bring them back to health and strength.
  • Atmit, Muk or Adja is a thinner version of Genfo porridge for drinking, mixed often with spiced, clarified butter, milk and honey, or on its own with a pinch of salt. It is popular in the rainy season and for nursing the sick back to health.
  • Besso, made of roasted and ground barley is a popular snack for travellers and, in olden times, foot soldiers. The powder is either mixed with a bit of water, salt and chili powder to make a thick bread like snack, or mixed with more water or milk and honey for drinking. The Gurage and other southern tribes in Ethiopia ferment the Besso for a few days with water and a bit of sugar, add a pinch of salt and chili and drink it as a fortifying and energising meal-in-a-drink.