Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

Today is Shrove Tuesday. This day is called Sprengidagur (Bursting Day) in Iceland. This is the last day before Lent, and during the time when Icelanders still observed the fast, it was the last day on which meat could be eaten until Easter. The origins of the Icelandic name for this day are uncertain, but today it is generally taken to mean "eating until you feel like you're bursting". Split pea soup and salted mutton has been the traditional meal for this day since the 19th century. Recipe: 2 l water 500 g lamb meat or mutton, preferably salt cured, or salt pork if lamb/mutton is not available 200 g yellow split peas 1 tsp salt 500 g potatoes 1 onion 500 g carrots and rutabagas, cubed/sliced 3-4 slices smoked bacon (optional) (I use a lot more) Soak the peas for time indicated on the packaging (or use peas that don't require soaking). Bring water to the boil. Cut onion into chunks and add to the water with the meat and peas, and cook for about 1 hour....

Here you will find some information about the traditional Icelandic foods eaten at the Þorri feasts or Þorrablót . The links will take you to recipes or instructions for making some of these foods. Note: I can‘t find some of the photos I have of these foods and will add them as and when I either find them or am able to take new ones. Þorri is one of the old Icelandic lunar months. It begins on the first Friday of the 13th week of winter, which is usually between January 19th and 25th, but can occasionally begin on January 26th. It then ends ends on a Saturday between the 18th and 24th of February. The first day of Þorri is called Bóndadagur (Husband's Day/Farmer's Day - bóndi can mean either), and is dedicated to men (formerly only farmers). Since this is the coldest time of the winter, it is no surprise that Þorri has become a personification of King Winter. He is usually portrayed as an old man, tall and grizzled, who is as cruel to those who disrespect him as he is...

I have used the English name for this dish, but the dish itself is a logical invention that could have happened any place where potatoes and mutton are eaten. I occasionally make it to use up leftover Sunday roast. 250 g leftover meat (for this to be a real shepherd’s pie, it should be mutton. If it’s beef, the dish is called Cottage Pie ) 25 g butter, margarine or other cooking fat 2 tbs flour 250-300 ml meat broth or gravy Some left-over mashed potatoes In case you don’t have left-over mashed potatoes: 750 g cooked potatoes 100-200 ml milk 25 g butter or margarine Salt and pepper 1 finely chopped onion Breadcrumbs Cheese, grated Make the mashed potatoes, using this method but the above ingredients. Add the onion when the mash is ready to eat. It is also good to add one beaten egg or two beaten egg whites into the mash (I never do this, but it probably makes a better crust). The meat can be either boiled or roasted, but this does not suit smoked meats. Grease an o...

Party-sized cake For 3 layers of bread (refer to the first sandwich loaf post for more information)   150 g mayonnaise 100 g sour cream Aromat or Accent, to taste (may be left out) dash of garlic powder dash of freshly ground black pepper (may be left out)  150 g thinly sliced ham 5 hard-boiled eggs 1/2 can green asparagus Mix together mayo, cream and seasonings. Mash the eggs with a fork and chop the asparagus finely. Mix everything together. Put the spread between the layers of bread, spread mayo-sour cream evenly mixture over the loaf and cover with slices of ham. Garnish with, e.g. tomato roses, egg slices, cucumber, bell peppers, halved or quartered grapes, fresh parsley. Loaf Roll

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...

Someone e-mailed me not too long ago and asked for a recipe for salting mutton. This is the recipe in my mother‘s old cookbook. I haven‘t tested it, but am relying on my grandmother‘s advice for the information that was missing, such as the minimum brining time and how long it will stay preserved. The recipe contains saltpetre (potassium nitrate), the use of which has been mostly discontinued in Iceland due to health concerns. Saltpetre was used as an extra preservative and it also gives the food a characteristic pink hue. It may be safely left out, but the meat may not keep for quite as long as it would otherwise. The sugar tenderises the meat. Meat may be dry salted or brined. Dry salting is best for lean meat and brining for fatty meat. For 50 kg of meat (mutton, lamb, horse, beef, pork, etc.): Salting mixture: 3 kg salt (coarse pickling salt works best) 250 g sugar 2 litres water (30 g saltpetre) The meat should be cut into in serving-sized pieces (half-cutlets, steaks, etc.). It s...

Blood sausage is an ancient dish and can be found in many countries where domestic animals are kept and there are no taboos against eating blood. This is the Icelandic version. Slátur is the collective name for blood sausage and liver sausage , and also for the necessary ingredients. "To take slátur " means to buy the ingredients and make the sausages, and in fact Icelandic supermarkets sell boxes with blood, livers, suet and stomachs (sometimes also the salt, cereals, thread and needles) in the autumn when the summer lambs are slaughtered. 2 litres sheep's blood 1 litre water 50 g coarse salt 1 kilo rye flour 200 g flour 400 g oatmeal 2 - 2 1/2 kilos sheep's suet Some people add raisins or chopped Iceland moss to the stuffing. If using Iceland moss, use correspondingly less rye flour and a little more water in the stuffing. If using raisins, use correspondingly less suet. Cut each stomach into 4-5 pieces suitable for stuffing, or use bags of sausage skin or even pla...

This root is known variously as a rutabaga, swede, swedish turnip or yellow turnip. I prefer rutabagas raw, but I also like them in lamb soup . Poached rutabagas: Wash 1 kg. the rutabagas in cold water and peel them. If small, leave whole or halve, if big, quarter and then halve or cut into wedges and halve those. Try to make the pieces a uniform size. Bring 1/2 liter water with 2 tsp salt to a gentle boil. Drop the rutabaga pieces into the water and poach - or steam them for a stronger flavour - until soft. Take care not to overcook, of they will become watery and bland. Serve with boiled meats and fish. Mashed rutabagas: 1 kg rutabagas salted water (100-200 ml milk) 50 g butter salt, pepper, (sugar) Wash, peel and re-wash the rutabagas in cold water. Cook in the salted water until soft. Remove from the cooking liquid and mash thoroughly. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the mash and thin with the milk, if needed, to the consistency of thin mashed potatoes. Add salt, pepper and suga...

This is delicious with pork roast, ham, hangikjöt or salt herring: Pickled red beets (beetroots) Sweet apple Beet juice Lemon juice Cream Sugar all to taste The beets and apples are cut into small cubes and mixed into softly whipped cream, along with lemon juice, sugar to taste, and enough beet juice to turn the salad pink.

Red beets are traditionally served with meats, especially pork, but I like them best in herring salad , creamy beet salad (recipe upcoming) and with liverwurst on Danish rye bread. Red beets water salt 100-200 g sugar 1 liter white vinegar Wash the beets thoroughly in cold water, put into cold water, add salt and cook until done through. Remove from the cooking liquid and gently remove the skins with your hands and cut off the tops. Slice the beets into slices, about 1/2 cm thick (I like them crinkle-cut). Fill a pickling jar with the beet slices. Cook together sugar and vinegar until the sugar is melted. Pour boiling vinegar over the beet slices. They will keep in sealed jars for 2-3 months.

My mother used to make this dish several time a year when I was growing up, and I liked it then, but now that I have learned to appreciate genuine Indian and Chinese curries, I never make it, simply because I detest pre-mixed curry powder (the only thing I use it for is sauce for marinated herring). The curry used is the mild type, but I imagine that a medium hot curry powder would be good with mutton, which has a stronger flavour than lamb or veal. This is a relatively new but still traditional Icelandic dish. I think curry powder first appeared in Iceland in the 1940s or 50s, and this dish has been part of the Icelandic everyday diet ever since. Lamb or mutton is generally used, but this recipe is also suited to veal. 750 g lamb, mutton or veal 800 ml water 2 tsp salt 2 carrots Curry sauce: 2 1/2 to 3 tbs flour 1 tsk curry powder 150 ml cold water 400-500 ml meat cooking liquid or stock 100 g rice 1 liter water 1 tsp salt A cheap cut like shoulder can be used in this dish. Meat shou...

You can use either rib cutlets or leg cutlets to make this dish. This was one of my favourite Sunday dishes when I was growing up, and remains a comfort food for me. The recipe works with pork or veal cutlets as well, but the traditional meat is lamb. 750 g of rib half-cutlets or leg cutlets of lamb 2 egg whites or 1 egg and 2 tbs milk 3 tbs bread crumbs (we generally use Paxo brand crumbs, but home-made or other brands are fine as long as they are unflavoured) 2 tsp salt 3/4 tsp pepper* 100 g butter or margarine 20 g butter 1-2 onions extra butter as needed 2-3 tbs water Traditionally, the cutlets are beaten with a meat mallet, but if you have nice, tender lamb, it really isn't necessary. Set up a mise-en-place: frying pan on the stove, dish with bread crumbs and spices, dish with egg, dish with cutlets. If using egg whites, whip them until they begin to froth. If using a whole egg, break and stir vigorously with the milk until slightly frothy. Mix together the bread crumbs and sa...

500 g kidneys - sheep, veal or pork flour mixed with salt, pepper and paprika to taste 50 g butter or frying fat 2 onions, finely chopped 3-4 carrots, sliced 250 g tomatoes Clean the kidneys and cut each into 4 parts. Coat with spice-flour mixture. Brown in the butter/fat in a saucepan with the onions and carrots. Blanch and skin the tomatoes and add towards the end of the browning time. Add enough water so that it barely covers the ingredients. Simmer over low heat until the kidneys are tender. At the end, thicken the sauce with some flour paste and add a little cream if desired, to make a smoother sauce. Serve with potatoes. This dish is also good with mushrooms.

While there are no specifically Icelandic recipes in this book, there are enough dishes in it that have passed into traditional Icelandic cookery (taken from Danish and Norwegian cookbooks of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries) to include it here. Author Trina Hahnemann has, in co-operation with photographer Lars Ranek, produced a gorgeous tribute to Scandinavian cookery. The book is divided into chapters by month, and each month includes recipes made from local ingredients that are fresh at the given time of year. The recipes, when they aren't pan-Scandinavian, are mostly Danish and Swedish, with some Norwegian ones. My native Iceland isn‘t included, as while the culinary tradition is firmly Scandinavian, the country isn‘t actually a geographical part of Scandinavia. I did find several recipes that are very familiar to me, like fish cakes, gravlax, pickled cucumbers, marinated herring and Christmas pudding, to name a few. The recipes are a mixture of familiar traditional reci...

I made some liver sausage with a friend of mine yesterday. This is a popular Þorri food that is available year round in Iceland. It is the season for making liver and blood sausages right now. There are many ways of preparing liver, and the following is one method of preparing a good, nutritious meal from lamb's liver. This delicacy has relatives in various other countries. The most famous is do doubt the Scottish Haggis. This is an original traditional recipe. Below the instructions you will find a tip on how to make it lighter and healthier. Pork liver can be substituted for lamb's liver, and beef suet for the mutton suet, but for genuineness, you need lamb's liver and suet. 1 kg lamb's liver 50-100 g flour approx. 450 g rye flour 750 ml milk 150 g oatmeal 30 g salt 1 kg sheep suet Sheep's stomachs/tripe (optional), large sausage skins, or cooking bags Wash and clean the liver and remove all blood vessels and membranes. Mince the liver thoroughly into a ...

A friend and I meet for lunch a couple of times a month, and recently we decided to try a new restaurant or café once every month, instead of always going to one of the same three places over and over. This month’s choice was Jómfrúin, a Danish-style smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) restaurant in Lækjargata in the heart of Reykjavík. Neither of us had eaten there before, but I have eaten party food from them on several occasions (at my workplace we sometimes order canapé versions of these bread dishes to serve to special guests). The place is small and bustling with activity. The environment is in the plain café style, with old Danish advertising posters on the walls, dim lighting and paper tablecloths. The floor is tiled and there was too much noise in there for us to have a quiet conversation. The service was fast, efficient and friendly. You can get most of the dishes in "full" and "half" portions, which is good, because a full portion is really a meal in itsel...

It's the season when fresh offal is to be had in every self-respecting supermarket, and liver is one of the things I enjoy at this time of year. My mother used to make Lifrarbuff fairly often when I was a kid. 500 g. lamb's liver 1/2 - 1 cup flour 1 egg 3 ea. potatoes, raw 1/2 - 1 cup milk 2 medium onions 1/2 tsp baking powder to taste salt, pepper and/or other favourite spice Remove all membranes and blood vessels from the liver and peel the potatoes. Peel onions and chop coarsely. Mince together liver, potatoes and onions. Mix in flour, baking powder and spices. Add the egg. Thin the mixture with milk until it is the consistency of porridge. Drop the mixture by the tablespoonful on a hot frying pan and fry on both sides until firm. Serve with butter-fried onion rings, mashed potatoes, green peas and rhubarb jam. Fried eggs are also good with this dish.

Slaughter season is in full swing in Iceland. This means that besides lowered prices for fresh unfrozen lamb, mutton and horse meat, you can also get fresh offal, which is not only cheap, but also nutritious and often quite yummy. While it is generally possible to get these products fresh year round now, it is more usual to find them frozen and when fresh they tend to cost more off season because there is less supply. This is also the only time of the year when you can get fresh sheep's blood to make blood sausages. In the next week or so I am going to revisit some offal recipes I have published here in the past, but I am going to start with a recipe I haven't published before: Fried sheep's hearts . 2-3 sheep's hearts, or 1-2 pig's hearts 1 bunch parsley 1 tbs butter or margarine 50 g margarine or butter 1 tsp salt 300 ml water or milk 2 tbs flour 100 ml cold water Wash the hearts well under cold running water until there is no blood left in them. Soak in cold wate...

If you enjoy gorgeous photography, haute cuisine and chefs on ego trips, this is a book for you. It also happens to be quite informative about Icelandic food and traditional ingredients. The book is too big for my scanner, so I had to borrow an image of the cover from another website. It is therefore not quite as large as I would have liked. This prizewinning food book (honorary Gourmand Cookbook Award, 2007) was written by Chef Völundur Snær Völundarson, assisted by Haukur Ágústsson, with photographs by Hreinn Hreinsson, and published by Salka (Iceland), in 2006. This is a heavy, large format book, more suitable for the coffee table than the kitchen. It combines the subjects of Iceland and cooking, with gorgeous photographs of Icelandic nature, people and food, and text about the same. The recipes are original and were conceived by the author to showcase how Icelandic ingredients can be used in fine cooking. The author is very central to the book. He writes of his personal experiences...

There are a number of Icelandic cookbooks available in English, most of them published in Iceland and aimed at the tourist market. Most are printed on heavy, glossy paper and some have gorgeous colour photographs in them, both of which makes them expensive. Buying one for the equivalent of 50 US Dollars or more and then discovering it isn't what you were looking for is an expensive mistake. Therefore I decided to review as many of them as I could get my hands on, to make it a little easier to decide which one to invest in. Not all of the Icelandic cookbooks in the book stores are available from the library. I will stick to the ones I could get from the library, as I have been able to read them all the way through. First up are Cool Cuisine and Cool Dishes , which is a baby version of the former. They were written by Icelandic food writer Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir, with photographs by Gísli Egill Hrafnsson and published by Vaka-Helgafell in 2004. These books combine gorgeous food phot...