Typical Scottish gift

[ItalianWiking84]

Hi all,

I am currently living in Scotland, but I am from Denmark. This year my parents are coming over to celebrate Christmas with us. In Denmark we have a dessert called Ris A la mande which is a bit like rice pudding with almonds. In this dessert we hide a whole almond and the person who finds this almond, gets an almond gifts.
We have decided this gift should be something typical Scottish, just a wee thing. I know Whiskey is typical Scottish, but none of us drinks it, so I am hoping that some Scottish mumsnetter can help me with ideas and preferably also links for something typical Scottish.
I was looking after a Money Box, because we say in Denmark that Scottish are very careful with their money and good savers but havent been able to find any money box with Scottish motive.
Hope you can help,

Kilt pin, tartan socks or scarf or blanket/rug, oatcakes, shortbread, heather honey, Scottish tablet (hard, sugary fudge).

yy cozietoesie, my spurtle ain't reserved for just porridge, it's fabbo for anything that needs heavy duty stirring, hah!

For the house, a quaich?

ooh ooh, ItalianWiking, would you share your Riz al a mande pudding recipe, please? I meant to ask straight away, I love almond.

...just before someone else says it, it's Whisky not Whiskey :)

loads of scottish things - shortbread is a nice idea or if you want to stick with foodstuff then there is also Black Bun (cake) or Tablet or any number of sweeties e.g. Edinburgh Rock or maybe some Tunnocks tea cakes.

You also get fancy wooden sticks for mixing porridge (spurtle) which is inexpensive but lovely:

www.amazon.co.uk/porridge-spurtle/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=porridge%20spurtle&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aporridge%20spurtle

and despite the image of Scots as mean and christmas hating, they actually spend a lot more per head at Christmas time than the rest of the UK.

What about highland cow Xmas ornament??

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/170143186/christmas-coos-highland-cow-christmas?ref=cat_gallery_1

Second anything made if Harris tweed, ants stuff.

this looks easy! and delicious nom nom nom.

buy them all one of these and tell them it's traditional to wear it instead of christmas hats.

www.amazon.co.uk/See-You-Jimmy-Hat-Tartan/dp/B003S6B19C

I'd second sharing your recipe for the pudding as well- please.

DeepThought I will translate my recipe when I come home, but I did find this English video on You Tube explaining how to make it, hope it can help a bit too

You could get them a tartan rug. Jonstons do a Christmas one every year.

www.johnstonscashmere.com/retail/winter-2013/home/the-christmas-rug-red.html

I was bought a drinking cup - quaich mentioned up thread to welcome me to the family - Dh is Scottish. It was a lovely gesture and I treasure it!

\link{http://www.denmark-getaway.com/ris-a-lamande.html\Here} you go, posters. There are other ones out there, though, as well (hopefully) as the OP's.

Thank you, ItalianWiking, you are very kind you too, cozie

Recipe

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
4 cups milk
1 cup short-grain white rice (oat rice)
7 tablespoons sugar
Very small dash of salt
1 cup heavy cream, for whipping
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Best taste to use fresh vanilla and spoon it out, one vanilla is for one recipe)
1/2 cup blanched almonds, chopped and without the shell
1 whole almond

Homemade Bing Cherry Sauce or you can buy the kirsebærsovs here, www.scandikitchen.co.uk/products/Fynbo-Kirsebaersauce-500ml.html

Instructions:
Place 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand 3 minutes to soften gelatin. Warm mixture in microwave until gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, place 2 cups of the milk and the rice in a medium saucepan. Stir over moderate heat until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the dissolved gelatin, then the remaining 2 cups of milk, the dash of salt and the sugar. Transfer the rice mixture to a large bowl. Freeze until mixture is cold and thickens but does is not set, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Whip the cream and vanilla until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the rice mixture. Fold in the 1/2 cup chopped almonds, and the one (1) whole almond. Place in a serving bowl and chill in refrigerator. When ready to serve, spoon into individual dessert bowls, and serve with cherry sauce. Refrigerate any left-over pudding.

Makes 4-6 servings.

I always buy Cherry sauce so unfortunate I do not have a recipe for that.

A quaich filled with sugared almonds to bridge the cultures?

Or with a wee miniature bottle of the local malt?

I have two quaichs and they are used as ornaments rather than functional objects. We christened them when we got them though.

We bought one of ours when on honeymoon from this pottery I thought it was a bit different from the usual pewter ones.

DeepThought the recipe you found is for Risengrød, which is almost the same as ris a la mande, but not completely. Risengrød is often made first and then left overs are in to Ris a la mande :) But Risengrød is indeed very yummi and in Denmark is eaten very much in December :D

soontobeslendergirl sorry for my misspelling, should have learned it now, lol....

I am glad you are guiding me to the correct recipe! Again, thank you.

BING CHERRY SAUCE:

1 can bing cherries, drain, save juice
2 tsp. cornstarch
3/4 c. red wine

Mix cornstarch and wine. Bring cherry juice to boil and slowly add wine mixture. Cook until thick and clear, stirring constantly. Add cherries. Add red food coloring, if desired. Serves 8.

I think that what might also go wonderfully well - and make it more Scottish - is a homemade bramble sauce. It's a little late in the year now to use anything but shop brambles which would make it terribly expensive - but for next Xmas?

DeepThought your very welcome, and please do ask, if something does not make sense. Not so easy translating from Danish to English with these things,

cozietoesie your recipe sounds very correct, well done :) And remember the ris a la mande is eaten cold and the cherry sauce should be warm and dont forget the almond gifts for the lucky winner :D

That recipe also has the nice idea of making one for the kids and one for the adults - with an almond in each.

PS - if you get something like a spurtle, and your parents get the almond (which you can 'arrange' of course) print out the relevant google pages for your parents so that they can see all about them.

cozietoesie we are usually 25 people for Christmas so we have 4 large bowls and each will have an almond in them and a gift :) And also you cant reveal when you find the almond. So you keep in your mouth and pretend you dont have it and then the fun part is in the end to look at each other and trying to guess who might have it and where the person could have hidden it....

If you're near glasgow I can recommend a place for quaichs, Skean dhu's (ceremonial Scottish knife) and kilt pins in silver.

Also if you google GlasgowGifts there's a jeweller does a range based on the Glasgow coat of arms which is nice and quirky.