Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

I recently dined at an upscale restaurant in Reykjavík, Lækjarbrekka. Due to its location, in the very heart of the old town, it caters to many tourists and some of the menu items are quintessentially Icelandic. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that good old leftover food, plokkfiskur, on the menu. It's served au gratin with the classic accompaniment of rye bread and potatoes on the side. There are jokes about plokkfiskur - it can be either a delicacy or a disaster. During the old days, when fish was served (in some homes) five days a week, this was the standard way of using up leftovers. If you didn't finish the fish at lunch, this was what you could expect to be served for dinner. about 700 g cooked fish about 500 g cooked potatoes 50 g margarine or butter 50 g flour 750 ml milk 1/4 tsp ground pepper 1/2 to 1 medium sized onion, optional Any kind of cooked fish can be used, but to make this authentic, use cod, salt cod, haddock, or halibut. Remove al...

This was a very popular soup in my home when I was little. Every time I taste elbow macaroni in sweet milk, it brings back childhood memories. 1 1/2 litre milk 60 g elbow macaroni 1/2 litre water 1 1/2 tbs sugar 1 12 tsp salt cinnamon sugar Cook the macaroni in the water as indicated on the packet. Add the milk, sugar and salt and heat to boiling. Skim and serve with cinnamon sugar. The mother of one of my friends calls this "englaballagrautur" which translates as "angel dick soup" - I suppose because it's white, sweet and the elbow macaroni kind of look like little penises.

Frú Hnallþóra: So delicious! Originally uploaded by Netla . A friend of mine made this cake for her son's birthday party in August. Here's the recipe: Chocolate-date cake with strawberries The most common way of serving this kind of cake is with bananas, but since the photo is of one with strawberries, I am putting strawberries into the recipe instead. 4 eggs 150 g sugar 50 g flour 1 tsp baking powder 100 g dark (semi-sweet is best) chocolate 100 g dates Whip together eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour and baking powder by the spoonful until fully mixed. Chop chocolate and dated (raisin-sized pieces are good) and fold into batter. Line two round baking tins (approx. 22 cm in diameter) with baking paper and put in the dough. Level dough with a spatula. Bake at 180°C on the middle rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until firm when poked gently with a finger. Filling and decoration: 1 small or medium box fresh strawberries (depending on how much decoratin...

It gladdens my heart to know that people have actually used my skyr recipe with edible results. I got this (through my LonelyPlanet account) from Ivan: “This is just to report my skyr-making attempts in England. I brought some skyr back from both my last trips to Iceland. The first time was subject to all sorts of over-heating disasters, and finally came to an end when I spilt it all over the hall carpet. The most recent attempt (from skyr brought back in summer 2005) was much more successful. I was using the junket-rennet, which is not ideal, and does not really give the right texture, but I was definitely making something with the right kind of taste and which people wanted to eat. I kept it going for 6 months, and then suddenly it stopped working, so I must have done something to kill it.” So you see: it can be done. The starter is always taken from the last batch of skyr and I think in Ivan's case it probably got weaker every time until it finally died. I have been told the sky...