Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Nielsen

The taste of the east 


May contain traces of advertisement.*

In May 2019, in the oldest residential house of Egilsstaðir, called "Nielsenshús", a new restaurant opened: Nielsen restaurant.

The name goes back to the Danish man Oswald Nielsen, who build the house in 1944 and lived here together with his Icelandic wife and his family. Some photographs and old tools remind of Oswald Nielsen, for example a self-made hammer, which he used, when he built the house, and which his daughter surrendered to the restaurant.

Even though the house is the oldest residential house of Egilsstaðir, it is only 75 years old. The whole town is quite young. Before, there was only a farmhouse here at Lagarfljót river. Only in 1944 further houses were build. Not until 1987, Egilsstaðir was awarded with town status. Today about 2,500 people live in Egilsstaðir.

After Nielsen family moed out of the house, it was used for many different purposes, most recently as a café, until Kári Þorsteinsson and his partner Sólveig Bernadóttir opened their restaurant.

Sólveig was born and raised in Egilsstaðir. Kári is from the Westfjords. He is a very renowned chef in Iceland. After having worked in London (in the star-rated restaurant Texture) and in Copenhagen (in the famous restaurant Noma) he was head chef in Kol restaurant in Reykjavík. In 2018 he was head chef in Iceland's only star-decorated restaurant Dill, where he managed to defend the Michelin star of his predecessor.

When Sólveig and Kári expected a baby, they decided to move to the country side, away from the hustle and bustle of Reykjavík to Sólveig's home town Egilsstaðir.

Nielsen restaurant is focused on the taste of East Iceland. The dishes are based on local and seasonal ingredients. These are harvested at their maximum of taste and then either used fresh or preserved - pickeled, boiled, salted, dried, ...


To offer best products, the menu of Nielsen is small and changes depending on the availability of ingredients. The ingredients originate from Iceland, even from East Iceland, if ever possible. Many of them come from Vallanes, the organic farm south of Egilsstaðir, which's products are sold in Iceland under the well-known "Móðir Jörð" label - "Mother Earth". Cheese and skyr are delivered by another farm in Egilsstaðir. But the icecream for the dessert, which is made from organic milk, is not from the nearer surroundungs, but from a very special icecream manufacturing in Reykjavík. Later more about this.

The dinner menu offers three appetiziers, four main dishes and three desserts - and a three-course meal.


In July 2019 we had been travelling through East Iceland, and for one Monday evening we got an invitation from Sólveig and Kári to try out dinner in their restaurant. Even though it was quite early at 6 p.m. on a working day, the restaurant was well attended. (It was hard to take a photo of my husband during dinner without getting other guests into the picture.)

To try out as many different dishes as possible, my husband decided upon the three-course menu, while I chose an appetizer and one of the main dishes. During the meal, Sólveig cared for us, explained every dish in detail to us and guided us lovingly through the dinner.


That's my dessert: Raindeer-tartar. The small yellow dots were egg yolks, the brown ones were mushrooms, cooked and mashed. In addition it contained roe, raindeer moss and croutons. The food was a dream! Clearly structured, every bite a taste explosion. Yes, I know, that sounds bombastic - but it simply was bombastic!

Sólveig told us, that Kári had hunted the raindeer by himself and that he had collected the moss by himself, too. (Unfortunately we couldn't meet Kári, since he was at home taking care of his 7 months old son. A man, who not only cooks, hunts and collects herbs, but who is in addition a dedicated father - what a dream man!)


This is the appetizer of the three-courses menu: Barley-risotto, cooked in skyr, with cheese, shallots and arugula. My first encounter with pearl barley was in the 80s in a food-food restaurant in Hungary - and that was traumatic. But that barley had nothing to do with the barley-risotto we got here. It was wonderfully creamy and smooth, just as a risotto should be. Simply perfect. (What a luck, in the morning I had bought of flour on Vallanes. I have to try to reproduce this risotto at least rudimentarily.)


As main dish I had chosen the catch of the day. It was codfish. But sometimes they have more offbeat kinds of fish, too, Sólveig told us. It was served with barley (from Vallanes), with rhubarb, angelica, basil oil and fresh arugula. The fish was very good, but it couldn't keep up with the barley. The barley with it's different flavors from sweet to spicy to slightly bitter, a round strong taste. Absolutely great!


The main course of the menu was lamb prime with potatoes, kohlrabi, vegetable puree and oil with garlic chives. It tasted great. The lamb was beutifully soft. The vegeatable puree with the oil was a pleasure.


As third course of the menu we got for dessert milk ice cream on chocolate with salted caramel and larch needles. The chocolate was intensive in tast, not too sweet, rather aromatic. While eating, from time to time you meet a crispy flake of salt or some of the fine larch needles. The milk ice cream comes from SKÚBB, Sólveig told us, a small icecream manufacturing in Reykjavík. It is made from organic milk. (We decide to visit SKÚBB, when we come to the capital city, and to try the ice there once again.)


After our dinner Sólveig offered us a little surprise. They were working on a new dessert, and we should try a small sample of it. Lupin sorbet with basil oil. According to Sólveig, the test eaters either love or hate it, but nothing inbetween. Hence they were thinking about making it milder in taste. But for us it's just right the way it is. An explosion of taste, slighly sweet, very intense, and breath-taking fresh. We wouldn't have been able to eat much of it. But these few spoonfuls were a grand closure of a really great dinner!

Finally Sólveig guided us through the restaurant. The main dinner room, where we had sat, is in the second floor. They have further tables in the newly renovated first floor, ...


... where we could admire another one of Kári´s activities: He experiments with different methods for preserving foodstuffs. And so she showed us jars with dried fruits, with herbs pickled in vinegar, in sugar or is salt. These will become ingredients vor Nielsen's winter cuisine!

But Kári's experiment with Jerusalem artichokes had failed, Sólveig told. The plants, which usually grow up to 2 meters, had only become knee-high. Reason was not the short Icelandic summer, but the long lasting days. The plants need some hours of darkness every night to grow. And that's something you don't have during the Icelandic summer.


Nielsen restaurant has a large terrace to eat outside, when the weather is fine. Unfortunately the weather in Egilsstaðir had not been so good during this summer. So they couldn't serve food outside very often. Furthermore, in the garden there is a party tent for achelor parties and similar events.


We had an absolutely great evening at Nielsen restaurant. Fantastic food! And Sólveig introduced as wonderfully into the tastes of East Iceland. We're thrilled about this restautrant and will definitely come back, when we're in Egilsstaðir next time.

Once again thank you very much, Sólveig and Kári, for this fantastic experience! 



Overview:

Nielsen restaurant opens daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.. It offers lunch, coffee and waffles and dinner. On weekends brunch they serve brunch.

The lunch menu changes every day, since most of the guests around noon are employees in their lunch break and come regularly. Here a huge variety is more important than serving food typical for East Iceland. Hence the lunch menu is more general than the dinner menu.

For dinner three appetizers, four main dishes and three dessert are offered. The appetizers cost around 2,500 ISK (18 €, 22 $). Main dishes are at about 3,800 ISK (27 €, 30 $) and desserts at about 1500 ISK (11 €, 12 $).

For 6,990 ISK (50 €, 55 $) you can get the three-courses menu consisting of a certain appetizer, main course and dessert.





* Legal note: 

Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.


Thursday, July 4, 2019

Kjúklingarbringur með sinnepi

Chicken breast with mustard



Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
100 ml Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp skyr
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 pinch of salt and pepper
2 tsp dried thyme


Preparation

Preheat the oven to 220 °C.

Mix mustard, honey, skyr and cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.


Place the chicken breast in an ovenproof dish.


Spread them with the mustard mixture.


Bake them for 40 minutes, until the chicken is well done.

Sprinkle with dried thyme and serve with fresh salad and boiled potatoes.



Sunday, June 30, 2019

Matarkjallarinn

The Food Cellar


May contain traces of advertisement.*

"Matarkjallarinn", the "Food Cellar", is a quality grill and cocktailbar with pleasant atmosphere in the heat of Reykjavík, just around the corner from Ingólfstorg plaza in the callar of a 160 years old building.


Here you get "food in your body and music in your soul", that's the restaurant's selfconcetion. The kitchen provides culinary art based on icelandic ingredients. Furthermore "Matarkjallarinn" owns a mahogany grand piano made in 1880 in Vienna by the Bösendorfer Company, and you can listen to live music every evening.


The evening we spent in "Matarkjallarinn" took place under the headng "Upplifðu Ísland - Discover Iceland".


Appetizer - Nýbakaðar pretzels með rjómaost

We started the evening with a little basket with two warm half pretzels served with cream cheese. (Not part of the menu, but an appetizer for all dinner guests.) A taste of garlic and herbs. For us, as Germans, this was a bit surprising. We know pretzels with cream cheese as a traditional Bavarian dish and hadn't expected to get it here in Iceland. But it was delicious anyhow. And, in fact, pretzels become more and more popular in Iceland, too.



1st course - Hægeldaður Þorskur

As first course we got slow-cooked cod with crusty strips of smoked lamb (Icelandic "hangikjöt"), almonds and langoustine hollondaise. This course was absolutely great. The combination of beautifully soft fish, the creamy sauce and the crunchy slices of lamb served with fresh herbs - this combination of different textures was my personal highlight.



2nd course - Grafin Gæs

The second course were smoked goose with pecan nuts, goat cheese, singapore sling sorbet and cherries. (I had to google what "singapore sling" is and asked the waiter, whether it is with alcohol. It is not.)

The goose was very delicious. The goat cheese was great and had an intense taste. Crunchy nuts and icy cold sorbet. Here we had not only the contrast of different textures, but also of hot and cold. It was sweet and fruity. I could not have eaten much more of it. But it was tasty and interesting.



3rd course - Steikt Lambafille

The main course to become fully sated consisted of fried fillet from the shoulder of lamb, grilled celery, onions and potato salad. Both pieces of lamb were extremely tasty and wonderfully tender. Absolutely perfect!

Only the potato salad was a bit too heavy and rich, for my taste.


But I liked very much the taste of the grilled celery, even though I'm normally not a great fan of celery.



4th course - Hjónabandssæka

Finally, for dessert, we got the traditional Icelandic "happy marriage cake" consisting of oat flake crumbles, marmalade and little pieces of marzipan. It was served freshly baked and warm in cast-iron pans and topped with ball of vanilla ice cream.

A mixture of warm and cold, crispy and creamy. And it was a really large portion. So we ended completely filled.


These are the moments, in which I love to be a food blogger!



Overview:

The restaurant opens for lunch on Mondays to Fridays from 11:30 to 14:30, for dinner on every day from 17:00 to 23:00.

Dinner menu:

The 4-courses menu "Discover Iceland" costs 9700 ISK per person (June 2019, about 68 €, 78 $), with wine 17500 ISK (about 123 €, 140 $). The three-courses menu "Haf og Hagi" (= "surf and turf") costs 8900 ISK (about 63 €, 71 $). The trhee-courses seafood menu costs without drinks 7900 ISK (about 56 €, 63 $), sme as the vegan four-courses menu.

The six-courses "Food Cellar's Secret Menue" ("Leyndarmál Matarkjallarans"), a chef's choice surprise menu, is the premium meal for 10900 ISK (about 77 €, 87 $) per person. It's only served for the whole table.

Of course, you can order not only menus, but also single dishes á la carte. Starters and small dishes are available for 2290 to 3390 ISK (16-24 €, 18-27 $). Main dishes reach from 4190 ISK (30 €, 34 $) for glazed butternut squash with polenta to 8490 ISK (60 €, 68 $) for a large portion of Icelandic langoustine with garlic, butter and parsley.

Desserts are available for about 2200 ISK (about 15 €, 18 $).

All dishes served on the tables around us looked really great and delicious!



* Legal note: 

Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.


Sunday, March 3, 2019

Gerbollur með hindberjarjómi

Raspberry cream puffs


In Iceland, Shrove Monday is celebrated as Bolludagur, kind of "cream puff day". Everybody eats donuts filled with cream, often topped with chocolate, to load up sweet treats before Lent starts. This year I tried a special variation of these doughnuts - with raspberry cream. Very delicious, but also very satiable! The recipe is for 10 to 12 cream puffs..


Ingredients

For the dough

100 g butter
300 ml milk
50 g yeast
500 g flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom
1 egg
1 egg for coating

For the filling

500 ml whipping cream
250 g raspberries
180 g raspberry chocolate
1 Tbsp rapeseed oil


Preparation

Heat butter and milk in a large pan.


Stir in the yeast.


Add flour, sugar, salt and cardamom.


Add the egg...


... and stir everything with a wooden spoon to a smooth dough.


Cover the pan and let the dough rise for half an hour.

Knead the dough thoroughly. If it is too sticky, add some flour. Form small balls with floured hands an place them on a lined baking tray, leaving a good gap between them.


Whisk the second egg and brush it on the balls.


Let the balls rise at a warm place again for half an hour.

Bake the balls in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes until golden.


Let the balls cool down. Then cut them into two pieces, one third from the top, two thirds from the bottom.


Now prepare the filling:

Whip the cream.


Crush the raspberries and fold them into the whipped cream.


Spread the filling on the lower half of the doughnuts.


Grate half of the raspberry chocolate...


... and spread it on top of the raspberry cream.


Put the upper half of the doughnut on top and press it slightly into the cream.


Melt the other half of the chocolate in a water bath.


Stir under a tablespoon of rapeseed oil to get a smooth glaze. Coat the top of the doughnuts with it.


Serve the cream puffs well chilled.




Sunday, February 24, 2019

Fiskréttur með karrý og ananas

Curry fish with ananas

Ingredients

750 g cod fillet
1 can of ananas (in pieces)
4 - 5 Tbsp flour
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp instant vegetable stock
1 chopped onion
3 carrots
250 ml whipping cream

Preparation

On a plate mix flour, curry powder, salt, paprika powder, pepper and instant powder for vegetable stock. Put a third of it aside.

Heat up oil in a large pan.

Cut the cod fillet into strips and roll in the mixture of flour and spices to coat. Then fry in the pan briefly from both sides.


Put the fried fish aside. Then fry the chopped onion and the sliced carrots in the hot oil until carrots are soft.

Add the ananas and the ananas juice from the can into then pan. Stir in the whipping cream and thicken with the remaining spiced flour.

Put the fish into the sauce and let soak shortly.


Traditionally the curry fish is served with rice and salad.