Léttsteiktur lundi

Seared puffin

In Iceland there are also things on the menu that tend to cause horror in our part of the world. In addition to whale meat and dishes such as sheep's head or cod head, this also includes puffin (" lundi "). You can still often find puffins on Icelandic menus today.

Latrabjarg

The cute-looking little animals that breed in burrows on cliffs in the summer can be found in Iceland, for example, on the Látrabjarg cliffs (in the far west of the Westfjords), at Reynisfjall near Vík í Mýrdal on the south coast of Iceland or on the Westman Islands. Around the middle of May, the birds lay their eggs in holes/burrows they have dug themselves, and the young hatch after just under 6 weeks. After another 6 to 7 weeks the young birds fledge. From the end of August onwards, it is very rare to see puffins on the bird cliffs in Iceland. The animals only return in April.

View from Dyrhólaey to Reynisfjara

In Iceland, puffins were often an important source of food, especially at the end of spring when supplies from the previous year were exhausted. Then people collected the eggs from the nests on the cliffs or caught the adult birds.

The IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, has classified the puffin as an endangered species since 2015 after populations have declined significantly in recent decades.

When we saw frozen puffins in the meat department at the Kolaportið, the market / flea market that takes place every weekend in Tollhúsið on Tryggvagata in Reykjavík, I wanted to take a bird with me and try it... if you're serious about Icelandic cuisine , I think that's part of it too.

By the way, the meat is visually more reminiscent of beef, it smells a lot like fish and tastes almost like liver.

Ingredients

1 puffin
1 Tbsp butter
250 ml malt beer
250 ml cream
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of black pepper


Preparation

Heat the butter in a large pan, then fry the bird (preferably well plucked) on both sides for a few minutes.

Then reduce the heat and season the bird with salt and pepper.

Pour the root beer and cream into the pan...

...and let it cook until the sauce thickens nicely.

Finally, season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste and serve the lundi with sauce and potatoes.

Annotation:

Our little bird weighed almost 100 g, including all the bones and feathers that were still attached. In the end, only a few morsels of meat remained. In my old Icelandic cookbook, Lundi calculates 4 to 6 birds per person.

A bird costs the equivalent of around 8 euros, if you actually prepare 6 birds per person, that would be just under 50 euros just for the meat. Compared to other types of meat, lundi is also quite expensive in Iceland at around 80 euros per kilo, but if you're just buying a bird for experimental purposes, I found it to be justifiable. Especially since Lundi are not for “mass feeding” in my opinion.

[Translated from here.]

Bakaðir tómatar

Baked tomatoes

The tomatoes are baked in the oven at a low temperature for about 4 hours. They are then incredibly soft and practically melt in your mouth. They taste extremely spicy!

The baked tomatoes are ideal as a starter or as a side dish to meat or fish dishes.

Ingredients per person

4 ripe tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp powdered sugar
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme


Preparation

Wash the tomatoes, quarter them and remove the stems.

Pour the olive oil into a shallow baking dish. Add the quartered tomatoes...

...and dust the powdered sugar over the tomatoes, then sprinkle the tomato quarters with the salt, pepper and thyme.

Bake in the oven at 150-175 °F (60-80 °C) upper and lower heat for about 4 hours.

Then serve straight away - you can't wait, enjoy it!

[Translated from here.]

Eplakaka með vanillufyllingu og karmellusósu

Apple pie with vanilla filling and caramel sauce

The taste of Iceland... I was recently contacted by a traveler to Iceland who had just returned from a wonderful week of vacation in South Iceland and was looking for an Icelandic apple pie recipe. They had eaten such wonderful apple cake with caramel sauce in Iceland and she wanted to “bake” this holiday memory for the reunion of her travel group. I hope I could help!

When I saw that on the Finnish food & design blog MAHTAVA! Currently the blog parade " This is what the north tastes like! " is running, it was immediately clear to me - I wanted to take part in it, with exactly this recipe for "Hardcore Apple Crumble in Icelandic". Because it contains so much of what characterizes Icelandic pastries for me - cakes with vanilla pudding and lots of cinnamon!

Ingredients

Ingredients for the cake batter

300 g soft unsalted butter
300 g brown sugar
3 eggs
300 g flour
1 tsp baking powder

Ingredients for the vanilla pudding filling

360 ml milk
1 tsp ground vanilla
60 g brown sugar
2 Tbsp potato flour
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp butter

Remaining filling

250 g applesauce
1 apple (cut into small pieces)
20 g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the caramel sauce

120 g butter
120 g brown sugar
60 ml whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla


Preparation

First prepare the vanilla pudding (well in advance!):

To do this, put 320 ml of the milk and the ground vanilla in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Then remove from the heat again and let cool briefly.

Whisk the sugar with the egg yolks and add them to the vanilla milk.

Mix the remaining milk with the potato flour until smooth.

Slowly pour into the vanilla milk while stirring constantly (preferably with an electric hand mixer or similar!). Put it back on the stove and bring it to the boil briefly while continuing to stir constantly, then remove it from the stove again, stir in the butter and let it cool for about an hour.

Now prepare the cake batter :

Warm the butter to room temperature.

Mix with the sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl. Add flour and baking powder and work into a smooth, slightly sticky dough.

Pour about 3/4 of the dough into a baking pan and spread/spread onto the bottom and sides.

Peel, quarter and core the apple and cut it into thin slices.

Mix the sugar with the cinnamon.

Now put the filling on the cake base: first the vanilla pudding, then the apple pieces, then the applesauce and finally sprinkle with the sugar cinnamon.

Carefully “pluck” the rest of the dough over the filling and distribute it.

Bake in the oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for approx. 40 to 60 minutes. It's best to let it cool down before removing the cake from the tin, it's easier that way.

To make the caramel sauce, place the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil over low heat. It is important that the mixture comes to the boil briefly so that the caramel sauce has the right consistency later. Remove from the heat, mix with the ground vanilla and let cool slightly.

Pour the caramel sauce on the cake...

...if possible, put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours so that it firms up a bit, and then serve as a dessert cake.

(But it also tastes really good when warm - but the shape suffers a bit!)

[Translated from here.]

Eplakaka með kara­mellusósu

Apple pie with caramel sauce

As in many Icelandic cake recipes, "púðursykur" is used in the original version of this recipe. The Icelandic "púðursykur" is not - as the name might suggest - powdered sugar, but simply sticky brown sugar

Ingredients

200 g unsalted butter
380 g brown sugar
2 eggs
400 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3 apples
2 Tbsp chopped walnuts

180 g brown sugar
80 g butter
200 ml whipping cream
1 pinch of vanilla


Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

First, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy, then add the two eggs.

Add flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla to the bowl and mix.

Finally, wash, peel and core the apples and cut them into thin slices, halve them...

...and then carefully fold it into the remaining dough with the nuts.

Then place the dough in a rectangular baking pan (approx. 25 cm x 30 cm) and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 40 - 50 minutes.

While the cake is in the oven, you should prepare the caramel sauce:

Put the brown sugar in a small saucepan with the butter and cream...

...and let it cook slowly over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Then serve the still warm apple pie with the caramel sauce and traditionally also with whipped cream - but it also tastes cold when the sauce has thickened nicely!

PS: If you like, you can also add a little bit of salt to the caramel sauce, for lovers of salted caramel.




[Translated from here.]

Valhnetukaka með súkkulaðikremi

Walnut cake with chocolate cream

It's October and I look out of my kitchen window at a wonderfully large walnut tree under which people eagerly collect things every morning. So it just had to be a walnut recipe!


Ingredients

Ingredients for the soil

3 egg whites
1 egg
200 g brown sugar
60 g potato flour
100 g ground walnuts
50 g chopped walnuts

Ingredients for the chocolate cream

50 g brown sugar
500 g whipping cream
3 egg yolks
200 g dark chocolate

100 g blueberries

Ingredients for the chocolate icing

100 ml whipping cream
100 g dark chocolate
120 g milk chocolate


Preparation

For the cake base , first preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Beat the egg whites with half the sugar until stiff.

Separately, in a large bowl, mix the egg with the other half of the sugar.

Carefully fold the potato flour with the beaten egg whites into the sugar-egg mixture.

Finally, add the ground and chopped walnuts to the dough and mix gently.

Then put the finished dough into a springform pan (approx. 22 cm) lined with baking paper...

...and let it bake at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 20 - 25 minutes until the dough is well cooked.

Then let it cool thoroughly and then cut it in half.

For the chocolate cream , put the sugar in a large pan and slowly melt it over low heat. Then pour in about 100 ml of cream and mix carefully. Add the egg yolks to the pan and stir gently with a fork, then remove the pan from the heat.

Chop the chocolate and add it to the mixture, stir gently until the chocolate is well dissolved and then let it cool to room temperature.

Whip the remaining cream until stiff and carefully mix with the chocolate mixture.

Now place the bottom cake base back in the springform pan, top with the blueberries and put the chocolate cream on top.

Then place the second layer on top and put the cake in the freezer for about 1 to 2 hours so that the cream becomes firm enough.

Then for the chocolate icing, heat the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.

Remove the pot from the heat, add the chopped chocolate and let stand for about 1 minute. Then stir in carefully until the chocolate has completely dissolved.

Then take the cooled cake out of the springform pan, pour the glaze over the cake, spread it...

...and decorate to taste (e.g. with walnuts).

Then put the cake back in the fridge and serve well chilled (but not frozen!).

[Translated from here.]