Hrefnuhakk

Whale watching off Reykjavík

Walhack from the minke whale

Ingredients

800 g whale meat
200 g oat flakes
100 g wheat flour
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper


Preparation

Chop the whale meat finely.

Then put the chopped meat in a bowl with the oat flakes, flour, eggs, baking powder and salt and pepper...

...and mix everything thoroughly...

...and shape meatballs out of the dough with your hands - the mixture makes about 6 to 8 meatballs.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the whale meatballs for about 5 minutes on both sides.

Then keep warm in the oven at 175 °F (80 °C) and cook a little more.

Traditionally, these meatballs are served with potatoes and brown sauce.


The whale meatballs
but are also very suitable for whale burgers:


Ingredients per serving:

1 bun
1 Tbsp sweet mustard
1 Tbsp ketchup
1/4 onion
1/2 tomato
1 leaf of lettuce


Preparation

Mix the mustard and ketchup into a sauce, chop the onion and stir it in and spread the sauce on both halves of the roll.

Cover the bottom half of the roll with the salad and place the whale meatball on top.

Place half the tomato on the meatball, fold the top half of the bun closed and secure everything with a wooden skewer.

PS: For obvious reasons, I didn't use whale meat for this recipe, but instead replaced the mince with 2/3 beef and 1/3 beef liver. :-)





[Translated from here.]

Lummur

Icelandic pancakes

Ingredients

400 g flour
100 g soft oat flakes
4 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
250 ml milk
250 ml buttermilk
2 eggs
Oil for the pan


Preparation

In a bowl, first mix the flour with the oat flakes, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Then make a well in the middle, pour in the milk, buttermilk, oil and eggs and mix everything thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Then heat in an Icelandic pancake pan (any other pan will work if necessary) over medium heat and then use a spoon to add several patties of dough to the pan.

Bake the flatbreads until small bubbles or cracks form on the surface, then turn them over with the spatula and fry the second side briefly.

Keep the finished Lummur warm in a preheated oven at around 125 °F (50 °C) until all the dough flatbreads are ready, and then serve the warm Lummur with sugar, cinnamon and jam with coffee.

The dough makes about 20 Lummur. If you invite guests, you have to plan about 3/4 hour to prepare the Lummur - or keep the Lummur warm in the oven for that long.

[Translated from here.]

Hafragrautur með bláberjum

Porridge with blueberries

A breakfast classic from Iceland that doesn't contain any animal products at all, so it's also suitable for vegetarians and vegans - a classic from the "always vegan" series, so to speak.

The consumption of "grautur", i.e. porridge, is even occasionally reported in the Icelandic sagas, although unfortunately it is not known how the porridge were cooked back then, and whether, for example, instead of the cereal flakes, there might have been some fjallagrös, i.e. dried, crushed food Icelandic moss was used.


Ingredients for 2 servings

100 g oat flakes
300 ml water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
4 dried dates
100 g blueberries (fresh or frozen)

 
Preparation

Cut the dates into small pieces.

Then put the oat flakes in a pot with the chopped dates, cinnamon, vanilla and salt as well as about 2/3 of the blueberries, pour over the water and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Then pour into two bowls and arrange the remaining blueberries decoratively on top of the porridge.

[Translated from here.]

Grillað lambainnralæri

Grilled lamb

 
Ingredients

approx. 800 g leg of lamb  
1 tsp licorice powder
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
50 ml olive oil
50 ml liquid honey
1 Tbsp dried rosemary



Preparation

Make small cuts in the lamb and “score” the meat.

Mix the licorice powder with the water in a bowl until dissolved. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix everything thoroughly.

Place the meat in the sauce, brush well and let marinate for at least half an hour, turning and brushing again and again.

Grill the meat over medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes on each side, regularly brushing with the sauce again.

Then remove the lamb from the heat and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

Cut the grilled lamb into slices and serve traditionally with caramelized potatoes and salad - but it also tastes good with wild garlic puree !

[Translated from here.]

Kartöflumús með bjarnarlaukur

Mashed potatoes with wild garlic

Ingredients

800 g jacket potatoes
350 ml milk
60 g fresh wild garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt


Preparation

Boil the potatoes with their skins in salted water until soft, then let them cool a little and peel them while they are still warm. Cut the peeled potatoes into large pieces and place them in a large pot.

Wash and clean the wild garlic and carefully puree it together with the milk in a blender.

Then add the wild garlic milk to the potatoes and let everything simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Then mash the potatoes and mix thoroughly with the wild garlic milk.

Finally, season with sugar and salt - preferably use licorice salt for the salt, if you have it, as this gives the dish another finishing touch.

[Translated from here.]

Vanilluís með karamellusósu

Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce

After getting an ice cream maker for my birthday, I'm still happily trying out the corresponding recipes - and Daim chocolate is now really widespread and popular in Iceland!

However, I had to make do a bit here, as I couldn't get real Daim chocolate at short notice...


Ingredients

5 00 ml whipping cream
4 egg yolks
60 g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
200 g Daim chocolate


Preparation

Chop the Daim chocolate into small pieces.

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar until foamy.
   
Beat 450 ml of the cream until stiff and stir in together with the vanilla and about 3/4 of the chopped Daim chocolate.

Allow the mixture to cool to approx. 45 °F (7 °C) in the refrigerator and then freeze it in an ice cream maker (or alternatively in the freezer with occasional stirring).

Melt the remaining Daim chocolate together with the remaining 50 ml of unbeaten cream in a small saucepan...
 

  ...mix thoroughly, then let the finished sauce cool and pour over the ice cream before serving.

[Translated from here.]

Pottréttur

Vegetable stew

Ingredients

120ml water
1 onion
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp red curry paste
3 Tbsp tomato paste  
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 large white turnip
400 g frozen cauliflower
400 ml coconut milk
400 g canned tomatoes
400 g kidney beans
Salt and pepper/cress to taste


Preparation

Chop the onion and sauté it in a large pot with the water.

Add the chili powder, curry paste and tomato paste to the pot and bring to the boil briefly.

Rinse the kidney beans in a sieve.

Clean the carrots, turnips and celery stalks and cut them into small pieces. Then add the chopped vegetables to the pot with the cauliflower florets, washed kidney beans, coconut milk and canned tomatoes and simmer for at least 20 to 30 minutes.

Then season with salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle the fresh cress on top, if desired, and serve the vegetable stew traditionally with fresh bread, or alternatively with pasta.

[Translated from here.]

Pippur með bananasplitti

Chocolate banana cookies

Traditionally in Iceland you would use Pipp chocolate for this recipe, but since I don't have any on hand here at the moment (except Pipp with licorice, but that doesn't quite fit this time), normal chocolate will also work.

And traditionally you would also use banana skyr with chocolate chips instead of banana puree, yoghurt and quark - but you can make do with that too.

 

Ingredients

200 g yogurt with chocolate chips
100 g quark
1 banana
300 g grated chocolate
200 g brown sugar
150 g butter/margarine
375g flour
175 g coconut flakes
2 eggs


Preparation
 
Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) (upper/lower heat).

Melt the chocolate in a water bath. Puree the banana finely in the blender. Mix the yogurt, quark and banana puree with the melted chocolate.

Add the sugar, butter and two eggs one after the other and stir in well.

Finally, mix the flour and coconut flakes into the dough.

Using two teaspoons, place the dough in small heaps on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in the oven at 350 °F (180 °C)C for about 16 minutes on the middle shelf.

Then let it cool thoroughly and then remove it from the baking paper.

[Translated from here.]

Tímían salt

Thyme salt

A simple, fresh herbal salt - with typical Icelandic ingredients.


Ingredients

100 g coarse sea salt
10 - 12 sprigs of fresh thyme


Preparation

Pluck the leaves from the branches and add them together with the salt...

...finely chop in the blender.

Then let the thyme salt dry thoroughly in the oven at the lowest temperature for about 4 - 6 hours until the moisture from the fresh thyme has evaporated.

Then let the finished salt cool down and fill it into a salt mill, a suitable jar with a screw cap or similar.

The thyme salt is ideal for adding a fresh note to meat dishes, mashed potatoes, etc.
[Translated from here.]