Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

I have finally found some time to do some updating. I used to host my photos on an external photo hosting site that offered free hosting, but it was bought out and monetized, and since this is a labour of love and I have no income from it, I decided to stop using a paid service. I never got round to saving all my food photos in one folder, so I have to go through my considerable collection of photographs to find them again, or to find better ones. I am also planning to check all the links and update or remove the ones that are outdated or dead and to go over the text of all the recipes to fix the formatting, update them and alter as necessary and correct any errors I might find.  I may also add some photos to recipes that don‘t have any. Don‘t worry, I am not going to add four pages of chatter to each entry to make the blog more searchable (according to Google) – the formula will still just be a short intro and maybe a couple of paragraphs about what the recipe means...

Skyr produced by Arla has been available in several flavour varieties (including natural) in the UK since the middle of last year. How I managed to miss this, I don't know, because this kind of news usually makes headlines in the Icelandic media (we are that proud of our skyr). It's possible the news has been ignored here because the skyr in question is not produced in Iceland.  Iceland failed to acquire a protected designation of origin for skyr and therefore anyone can use the term, even if the product doesn't really conform to the traditional definition of skyr. I am in no way implying that this is what Arla has done, but it has been implied that certain other producers are making yogurt, thickening it with rennet and calling it skyr. However, MS Iceland Dairies ( Mjólkursamsalan in Icelandic), has now started producing skyr for export to the UK. It will, to begin with, be available in Waitrose supermarkets in and around London as of February 8. I'd be ...

I am changing the direction of this blog a bit. Henceforth is is going to be not only about traditional Icelandic foods, but about what Icelanders like to eat in general. So far I have mostly written about traditional Icelandic food, most of which is still being cooked and served in Icelandic homes. But the food many of the younger generations like best can also be called Icelandic, even if it includes such obvious new imports as passion fruit, Parmesan cheese or prosciutto. Therefore I am going to change tack and start including more modern Icelandic recipes here. To separate the traditional food from the modern, I have labelled all the traditional recipes as such. Some of the food I have labelled “traditional” is really rather new, like cocktail sauce , rice pudding and hot chocolate , but I have labelled it as traditional by dint of its either being so lastingly popular that it has been proven not to be a fad and therefore likely to continue lasting, or because it or its use is uni...

According to Morgunblaðið, skyr is now available in Whole Foods Markets in the New York and Boston areas.

29 shops in the Whole Foods Market chain in the Mid-Atlantic states are now offering Icelandic skyr (vanilla and blueberry flavors, with strawberry and unflavoured coming soon), cheeses and lamb. Icelandic chocolate (Síríus Konsúm) will be available soon, and fresh Icelandic fish will be available in the fall. The Icelandic exporter expects to start selling the same products in Whole Foods Markets in the North-east USA, including Boston and New York, in September. Source: Morgunblaðið

It seems the world is finally to taste this unique Icelandic dairy product outside Iceland. Skyr and some other Icelandic products will soon be available from the chain store Whole Foods Market in the United States. A Danish dairy factory has started making skyr for local distribution, and skyr will soon be available in several other European countries. If you see skyr on sale anywhere outside Iceland, please let me know. Edit: See Rebecca's Comment for a heads up on the Whole Foods Market situation.