Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

I had planned to post a sandwich loaf recipe much earlier, but I rarely make them and when I do, I don’t use a recipe, so I had to find a set recipe first. I finally did find it, in fact several of them, which I will be posting in the following weeks. Sandwich loaves, or ‘bread cakes’ (in Icelandic: brauðtertur ) as they are called in Iceland, are an enduring presence at Icelandic celebrations where cakes are served. While not an Icelandic invention (I think they may have originated in the USA , or possibly in Sweden ), they have been popular here for at least 50 years and there seems to be no stopping them. While the fillings change according to fashion and whim and we don’t use half as much mayonnaise in them as we once did, they continue to be a vehicle for cooks to display their talents with garnish, and a savoury palate cleanser in between nibbles of all the sweet stuff that's usually served at traditional birthday parties. They are generally made from white bread, and you...

200 g oatmeal biscuits/crackers (e.g. Graham crackers) 60 g butter 1 tbs sugar Crumble the crackers finely. Melt the butter and stir into the crumbs with the sugar. Press into the bottoms of several small serving bowls. 4 sheets gelatin The juice of 1/2 lemon 300 g plain skyr 100 g sugar 2 eggs 150 g sour cream 1 tbs sugar Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 minutes. Remove from the water, squeeze out the remaining water and put the gelatin in a bowl or the top of a double boiler with the lemon juice. Heat gently until the gelatin is melted. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Mix together sugar and skyr and add the egg yolks, one by one. Fold in the sour cream. Lightly whip the egg whites with 1 tbs. sugar. Mix the gelatin into the skyr mixture and then gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Divide the mixture between the bowls and cool in the refrigerator. This can also be made into a whole dessert, in which case use a large, deep pie dish.

I love liver with bacon. I haven't tried this recipe, but I plan to. 750 g liver 100 bacon 1 tsp salt 1/3 tsp pepper 1/6 tsp ginger 1/6 tsp ground cloves 60 g cooking fat 400 ml boiling cooking liquid 150 ml cream 40 g flour 200 ml cold water Clean the liver and cut into thin slices. Mix together the flour, salt and spices and roll the liver slices in it to coat. Lay a rasher of bacon on each liver slice and roll up the slices. Tie together with cotton string. Heat the cooking fat ion a pan and brown the liver slices in it. Add the milk and water and cook for 15-20 minutes. Thicken the sauce with the flour (make a paste with a little cold water to avoid clumping). Cook the sauce for a couple of minutes, then add the cream. I imagine this would be nice with mashed potatoes, redcurrant jelly and a salad.

5-6 sheep's hearts (or 4-5 pig's hearts) 10-12 prunes (stoneless) 600-700 ml mixture of equal proportions water and milk 50 g butter 50 g flour salt and pepper sauce colouring Chop up the prunes and stuff the hearts with them. Sew closed. Melt the butter in a pan and brown the hearts in it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add the milk/water mixture and cook for 1-2 hours. Remove the hearts from the cooking liquid. Make a paste of the flour and a little bit of cold water. Bring the cooking liquid to the boil and stir in the flour paste to make a sauce. Add sauce colouring if desired. Cut the hearts into slices, and serve with the sauce on the side.

I love liver pate, but I have never tried to make it, probably because you can get perfectly good liver pate in most supermarkets in Iceland. This sounds like a good recipe: 700 g liver 300 ml milk 2 cooked potatoes 1 tbs chopped, browned onion 3 eggs 100 g butter or 300 g fatty bacon 7 tbs flour salt and pepper dash of cardamom 1 fillet of spice-pickled herring (or about 10 anchovy fillets) Soak the liver in cold water for about 30 minutes. Remove the membranes and blood vessels. Chop coarsely and put through a grinder 4 times, with the herring/anchovies, onion, and bacon (if using). Add the potatoes for the last round of grinding. If you're using a food processor, dump everything above in at once and process into a smooth paste, using the chopping blades. Mix together the flour and spices and mix into the liver paste along with the cooled melted butter (if using). Add the eggs and mix well. Finally stir in the milk, little by little. Grease a pate mould and press the raw pate int...

This is a rather good Sunday dish. If you don't know how to de-bone a leg of lamb, either buy it de-boned or get your butcher to de-bone it for you. 1 leg of lamb (about 2 kg. before boning) 50 g prunes, stoneless 30 g dried apples 2 tsp. salt 3/4 tsp. pepper Soak the apple slices to soften. Rub half of the salt and pepper on the inside of the leg of lamb and stuff with the prunes and apple slices. Sew closed. Rub the remaining salt and pepper on the outside of the meat. Put meat into a greased oven pan and roast at 250°C for about 90 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the steak shows 160°C. Start by roasting for 10-20 minutes, then add water to cover the bottom of the pan, to a depth of about 1 cm. Baste the meat with the cooking liquid every 15 minutes or so. Top up the water when it starts to boil down. About 10-15 minutes before the steak is done, remove it from the oven, pour the cooking liquid into a saucepan, through a strainer. Put the steak bac...

Twice-baked bread keeps well and is good in all kinds of sweetened soups, like Sweet Soup , Crowberry Soup , and Cocoa Soup . 250 g flour OR 100 g bread or all-purpose flour and 100 g whole-wheat flour t tsp baking powder 1 tbs sugar 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 75 g butter or margarine 100-150 ml milk Sift together the flour, baking powder and cardamom and add the sugar. Add the softened butter or margarine and rub into the dry mix until the mixture is crumbly. Add the milk, no more than needed to make the dough stick together. Knead until smooth and roll up into sausage shapes. Cut into even-sized pieces and roll into balls. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 180°C until light brown. Remove the buns from the oven and cool until they can be handled, then cut in half, put back on the cookie sheet and dry in the oven at a low temperature. Serve with the above-mentioned sweet soups or with coffee.