Icelandic cooking, recipes and food

I mentioned this dish in my post about the bread casserole , but was unable to find the recipe at the time. Well, here it is: White (French) bread in slices, enough to cover the bottom of the casserole dish 400 g mayonnaise 1 tub sour cream (about 180 g, but a little more or less will not hurt the dish) 1 can Campbell’s condensed mushroom soup 1 small can asparagus Grated cheese, e.g. Mozzarella or a mixture of Mozzarella and Gouda 1 1/2 small can mushrooms (I recommend using lightly sautéed fresh mushrooms instead) 10 slices of ham, cut into squares (for a vegetarian version leave out and just use more mushrooms) Remove the crusts from the bread and cut into cubes. Cover the bottom of a greased casserole dish with the bread cubes. Mix together mayonnaise, sour cream and the soup. Add the asparagus. Pour the mixture over the bread and top with mushrooms and ham and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and gold...

Hot bread-based dishes like this one are a popular party food in Iceland. I have rarely attended a birthday party, graduation, or other get-together in the last 10 years or so where the hosts didn’t serve at least one hot bread dish, either a stuffed bread roll or a casserole. These dishes generally contain cheese, usually either mushrooms or asparagus (often both), and sometimes chopped bell peppers or crushed pineapple. In the beginning the sauce was usually a can of Campbell’s condensed mushroom or asparagus soup mixed with cream, and the dish was topped with cheese, but these days the sauce is usually made from scratch, using some combination of: melted white or blue mould cheese (e.g. Camembert or Brie), or melted flavoured block cheese, or cream cheese, or cheese spread mixed with cream and/or mayonnaise and the liquid from the mushrooms and/or asparagus. Protein is usually provided in the form of ham or shrimp, but chicken can be used as well. The spices vary. I have seen recip...