Kanil-rabarbarabaka

Cinnamon rhubarb dessert

So, the last rhubarb for this season went into this extremely delicious cinnamon rhubarb dessert with cardamom rusks. By the way, you can buy rusks with cardamom at Ikea in this country - but you can also bake them yourself .

Ingredients for 4 persons

1 kg rhubarb
250 g rusks
400 ml whipping cream
250 g butter
1 stick cinnamon
100 g sugar

250 ml whipping cream


Preparation

Wash the rhubarb, peel it and cut it into small pieces.

Place in a large pot and simmer over medium heat for about a quarter of an hour together with the cinnamon and 70 g of the sugar.

Roughly chop the rusks...

...and mix with the remaining 30 g sugar.

Let the butter melt.

Put about 1/4 of the rhubarb mixture into an ovenproof dish, then spread 1/4 of the rusk crumbs on top and pour over 1/4 of the melted butter. Continue layering until you end up with the last layer of rusks covered in butter.

Bake at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 60 minutes.

Then remove from the oven, let cool briefly and then serve warm or cold with whipped cream, if desired.

[Translated from here.]

Tvíbökur

Zwieback

In Icelandic, rusks also mean "twice baked", i.e. "Tvibökur", and Icelandic rusks taste wonderful with a pinch of cardamom!


Ingredients

500 g flour
125 g sugar
1 tsp cardamom
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
125 g margarine
250 ml concentrated milk


Preparation

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

Place flour, sugar, cardamom, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl and mix.

Add the margarine and the curdled milk.

Knead everything thoroughly. If the dough is still too sticky, add a little more flour and knead until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers.

Then form small balls out of the dough and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake briefly in the oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 minutes.

Then take the tray out of the oven, let it cool briefly and then cut it in half with a sharp knife.

Then spread the halved rolls on the tray and bake in the oven at 250 °F (120 °C) for another 20 minutes until the rusks are nice and dry and golden yellow.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Rabarbaramauk - Rabarbarahlaup - Rabarbarasulta

Icelandic rhubarb jam

Waffle with rhubarb jam and cream

at Café Simbahöllin in Þingeyri

Oh yes, everything is difficult!

Jam refers to a fruit spread that is made “from fruits boiled down with sugar,” whereby no pieces of fruit must be visible in the end product. In the EU, with a few exceptions, the term "jam" can only be used for jam made from citrus fruits; for other types of fruit, spreads made from sugar and boiled fruits are referred to as jam. Jelly is gelatinous fruit juice without fruit pieces.

There are also different terms in Icelandic: Mauk, Hlaup and Sulta.

"Mauk" means something like "fruit pulp", "jam".

"Hlaup" means "run", the word is used in various contexts, for example for "jökulhlaup" = "glacial run" (a glacial burst) or for brawn or jelly - everything that "runs".

"Sulta" means "jam" or "marmalade", but Icelandic "Rabarbarasulta" is not only used as jam, but is also the classic Icelandic accompaniment to meat dishes - in terms of use, it is Icelandic, so to speak Ketchup.

Lamb, fries and rabarbarasulta

I was recently asked about Icelandic recipes for rhubarb jam on Facebook - and realized that I actually didn't have a corresponding recipe in my blog, even though I've cooked different versions so many times. So I really wanted to make up for this omission - here are recipes for rhubarb jam, rhubarb jelly and "Rabarbarasulta"!

Rabarbaramauk

Ingredients

1 kg rhubarb
850 g sugar
ground vanilla, if desired


Preparation

Wash the rhubarb well, do not peel it and cut it into pieces of approximately the same size, approx. 2 cm thick.

Put the rhubarb in a pot, add the sugar and let it steep overnight.

The next day, pour everything through a thin cloth, filter and use the resulting liquid...

...bring to the boil in a new pot and cook over low heat until it begins to thicken.

In terms of consistency, it would actually be more like "Hlaup", it's thick like honey - but not jelly.

Rabarbarahlaup

Ingredients

1 kg rhubarb
125 g strawberries
500 g water

1.2 kg sugar
2 sheets of gelatin


Preparation

Wash and clean the rhubarb and strawberries and put them in a large pot with the water, then let them cook for about 20 minutes.

Then drain everything through a muslin diaper, collect the liquid and pour it into a second pot.

Add the sugar and let everything simmer for about 15 minutes. Then remove the pot from the heat.

Soak the leaf gelatin in cold water for about 5 minutes, then remove it from the water, squeeze it out lightly with your hand, add it directly to the hot but no longer boiling fruit mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved.

Then pour directly into freshly washed jars that have been rinsed with boiling water and seal airtight.

Rabarbarasulta

Ingredients

1 kg rhubarb
800 g sugar


Preparation

Wash, clean and cut the rhubarb into small pieces, then put it in a large pot with the sugar and let it steep overnight.

The next day, bring the whole thing to the boil briefly, then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally and skimming off the resulting foam.

When the mixture becomes thick, pour it into hot-rinsed jam jars and seal airtight.

[Translated from here.]

Þurrkaðir sveppir

Dried mushrooms

Hey, this is the first time that I'm allowed or have to write this: Warning, this post contains advertising!

The company Pearl GmbH gave us one of their new Rosenstein & Söhne DH-25.k dehydrator with 5 dehydrator inserts *) as a permanent loan free of charge so that we can experiment with it.

Icelandic cuisine in particular revolves a lot around how food can be preserved.

Not much fruit and vegetables really grow in Iceland, and the season is short. This made it all the more important to preserve what grows, what you collect and harvest, in order to be able to survive the long, inhospitable winter months in this country. The collected berries, the herbs, the seaweed - but also the mushrooms.

Þurrkaðir sveppir - dried mushrooms

One of the most beautiful gifts for me was a jar of dried mushrooms that Guðlaug Jónsdottir gave me when I visited her two years ago. Guðlaug Jónsdottir is the author, together with her husband, of "West Fjords - A Culinary Journey", one of my absolute favorite cookbooks about Icelandic cuisine. In your book you report on culinary traditions in the Westfjords.

The experience of opening this jar of dried mushrooms and sticking your nose into it - indescribable! An absolute moment of happiness! And such a brilliant scent!!!

The traditional way to dry mushrooms in Iceland is to string them on a string and then hang them to dry in a windy place that is preferably protected from moisture.

In Iceland there are traditionally certain "huts" with a very airy design, which are somewhat sheltered from the rain but perfectly windy and which are used to dry food.

I don't have such favorable weather conditions at home here in Germany; a similar experiment failed completely a while ago. I'm all the more pleased that I can now dry my mushrooms myself with the dehydrator. And then let off steam with corresponding mushroom recipes!

Ingredients

Fresh mushrooms!


Preparation

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly, brush them off, remove the stems if necessary and then cut the mushroom heads into thin slices.

Then spread the slices on the dehydrator inserts in one layer,...

I dried the mushrooms at full power for about 8 hours and was completely satisfied with the result.

Now I have several jars of wonderfully fragrant dried mushrooms in my cupboard again and I can let off steam with corresponding mushroom recipes!

These mushrooms then went into these filled pancakes - and tasted excellent.

My favorite Icelandic recipes with dried mushrooms also include nut balls with mushroom sauce and, on festive occasions, stuffed goose. And I also have various recipes for Sveppasúpa, mushroom soups, with dried mushrooms here that I definitely want to try out soon!

Stuffed pancakes with meat and mushrooms

*) - Amazon affiliate link
[Translated from here.]

Klassíska eplakaka

Classic apple pie

Here is another very simple and very tasty recipe for a classic, simple apple pie.


Ingredients

200 g soft margarine
250 g brown sugar
3 eggs
400 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml whipping cream
1 pinch of ground vanilla
2 - 3 small apples
2 Tbsp sugar cinnamon


Preparation

In a large bowl, mix the margarine with the sugar until fluffy.

Then add the eggs and mix.

Add flour and baking powder and mix.

Finally, pour in the whipping cream, add the ground vanilla and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Line a springform pan (approx. 24 cm) with baking paper and pour the dough into it.

Wash, peel, quarter, core and cut the apples into thin wedges.

Spread the apple slices on the dough, sprinkle with sugar cinnamon and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 45 minutes.

Then let the cake cool slightly and serve with whipped cream.

[Translated from here.]

Westfirðingur skyrterta

Skyrtorte in the Westfjords style

In the south of Iceland I used to always know Skyrterta as a "real cake" and in the form of a piece of cake. In the Westfjords, people tend to eat their skyrterta as a kind of dessert, unbaked and served in a large, shallow bowl or something similar - it only takes a few minutes to prepare the recipe, but it should then sit well for at least 24 hours before it tastes good it best!

I got to know and love this recipe in Isafjörður in 2015.

.
Ingredients

200 g oatmeal cookies
80 g melted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
450 g vanilla skyr
1 tsp ground vanilla
350 ml whipping cream
250 g cherry jelly
2 Tbsp grated chocolate


Preparation

Roughly chop the oatmeal cookies and mix with the melted butter and cinnamon. Then press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the shallow baking dish.

Whip the cream until stiff, mix with the vanilla Skyr and the ground vanilla and then spread the Skyr mixture onto the firmly pressed biscuit mixture in the mold.

Spread the cherry jelly over the skyr mixture and sprinkle with the grated chocolate.

Then let the whole thing soak in the fridge for at least 24 hours and serve as dessert.

[Translated from here.]