Lakkrísvöfflur

Licorice waffles

I never used to eat licorice, but since we got to know licorice chocolate in Iceland... that has changed!

Last time I brought a selection of typical Icelandic sweets for my colleagues here in Germany, and I still had some Þristur (my favorite licorice chocolate!) left over. So it was fitting that my husband actually came across a recipe for licorice waffles, which of course I had to try!

Ingredients

300 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baker's ammonia

400 ml milk

1 egg

1 pinch of ground vanilla

80 g melted butter

150 g licorice chocolate

Preparation

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder and the baker's ammonia.

Then add the milk, egg, ground vanilla and melted butter and mix the dough until it is nice and smooth.

Then let the dough stand for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the waffle iron.

Meanwhile, cut the licorice chocolate into small pieces...

...and stir into the dough.

Grease the waffle iron or spray it with baking spray and then bake the waffles in batches in the hot waffle iron.

Then let the finished waffles cool slightly on a rack and then serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

[Translated from here.]

Túnfisksalat með eplum

Tuna salad with apple

This was a salad that I was even able to get my sons somewhat excited about - and with a fresh apple, a leek and lots of Skyr instead of mayonnaise, my husband, who is currently losing weight very successfully, was also very impressed with this salad.

Ingredients

4 hard-boiled eggs

240 g tuna (can)

1 stalk of leek

1 apple

1 Tbsp mayonnaise

200 g pure Skyr

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

1 pinch of black pepper

Preparation

In a large bowl, mix the skyr with the mayonnaise.

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them lengthwise and crosswise into small pieces in the egg cutter, then add them to the skyr.

Peel the apple and onion and also cut them into small pieces...

...and put both in the bowl.

Drain the tuna well, add it to the bowl with the other ingredients and season with the lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Then serve the salad well chilled with fresh bread or salty biscuits.

[Translated from here.]

Kaffi-Ís (III)

Coffee ice cream (III)

Is he að fá sér kaffi núna? Is it too late to have a coffee?

The Icelanders love coffee - especially uppáhellt kaffi , i.e. filter coffee. And Icelanders love ice cream. So it's no wonder that you find (what feels like) several recipes for coffee ice cream in every old Icelandic cookbook! I already have a recipe for coffee ice cream with lots of cream on the blog and also a recipe for coffee ice cream with sweetened condensed milk , and here I found a very simple recipe, but I substituted some of the cream with vanilla. Skyr and a pureed banana replaced. It doesn't necessarily have to be that high in calories... My husband was happy - this portion in the small waffle only had around 50 kcal.

Ingredients

250 ml whipping cream

450 ml vanilla skyr

1 banana

100 g brown cane sugar

250 ml strong cold coffee

Preparation

Whip the cream until stiff.

In a large bowl, mix the vanilla skyr with the sugar.

Puree the banana thoroughly and stir in together with the cold coffee.

Carefully fold in the whipped cream.

Then pour the ice cream mixture into a suitable container and place it in the freezer for several hours, stirring again and again until the ice cream has the desired consistency.

(If the ice cream in the freezer compartment is completely frozen, you have to let it thaw for about 20 - 30 minutes until it has a reasonable consistency again. Otherwise it will be frozen, I'm afraid.)

[Translated from here.]

Ískaffi

Iced coffee

Heatwave is called “hitabylgja” in Icelandic. Okay, how “heat wave” is defined varies greatly. In Iceland it feels like midsummer starts at 60 °F (15 °C) at the latest, people wear flip-flops and tank tops and shorts. While the model tourists are of course still walking around in windbreakers, long trousers and thick hiking boots. I think 60 °F (15 °C) in Iceland really feels much warmer than the same temperature in most other countries...

So if you want to be prepared for the next heat wave (even if it is only an Iceland "heatwave"), I can recommend this iced "milk coffee" as a drink to cool you down. (For various reasons, we only have it with decaffeinated coffee. But it tastes good too!)

Ingredients

1 ripe banana

400 ml milk

1 tsp baking cocoa

1 Tbsp honey

200 ml cold coffee

Ice cubes

Preparation

Peel the banana and put it in the blender with the milk, cocoa, honey and cold coffee.

Puree everything thoroughly, then pour into glasses, add the ice cubes and serve immediately.

[Translated from here.]

Þorskhnakki með lauk og blómkálsmauki

Cod neck with onions and cauliflower puree

Let's be objective - I would have loved to indulge in this dinner of fried cod, caramelized onions and cauliflower puree!

For this recipe, I bought “loins” at the fish counter, i.e. cod back fillets. These are particularly thick and almost bone-free fillets that are cut from the back of the fish and fall apart beautifully flaky after preparation. The recipe also works with normal cod fillets.

Ingredients for 4 servings

800 g cod loins

500 g red onions

2 Tbsp brown cane sugar

800 g cauliflower

500 ml milk

200 g butter

2 tsp coarse sea salt

1 pinch of black pepper

1 tsp rapeseed oil

Preparation

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

Peel the onions, halve them and cut them into thin slices.

Then melt 100 g butter with 2 tablespoons sugar in the pan, ...

...add the onions and simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes until the onions are really golden brown and caramelized.

Remove the stems from the cauliflower and roughly chop the florets...

...and cook until soft in the milk.

While the cauliflower is cooking, prepare the fish:

Cut the fish into 4 pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Then fry the fish pieces over medium heat in a pan with the rapeseed oil for about 3 minutes on each side.

Then place the pan or a suitable oven dish in the oven and cook for a good 5 minutes.

While the fish is in the oven, finish the cauliflower puree:

Pour off the milk, let the cauliflower drain well so that there is as little liquid as possible (otherwise the puree will be too runny!), and...

... puree thoroughly with the hand blender.

Then add 100 g butter, let it melt in the hot puree, stir thoroughly and season with a little salt.

Then arrange the fish on the cauliflower puree, add the caramelized onions to the cod and serve with a fresh salad.

[Translated from here.]

Súkkulaðikaka með kremi

Chocolate cake with cream

Oh, sometimes it just has to be chocolate...

It is probably not historically certain how long there has been chocolate in Iceland. It is said that for the first time in 1780 an Icelandic student from Copenhagen reported in a letter about "chócolade-drykkur", i.e. a "chocolate drink". But it wasn't until the middle of the 19th century that hot chocolate became more popular as a drink in Iceland, albeit as a drink for adults, as it tasted relatively bitter. The Síríus company then imported the first chocolate from Denmark to Iceland in 1896, later bought by the Icelandic confectionery company Nói hf. The Síríus chocolate factory in Copenhagen opened and from 1933 chocolate was also produced in Iceland.

In addition to the chocolate from Nói Síríus, I can also recommend the chocolate from the Icelandic company Omnom.

Ingredients

4 eggs

150 g brown cane sugar

200 g dark chocolate (70%)

200 g butter

100 g spelled flour

100 g butter

100 g dark chocolate (70%)

2 - 3 Tbsp honey

Preparation

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

Beat the eggs with the sugar until foamy.

Then slowly melt the dark chocolate and butter in a water bath.

Then mix the cooled chocolate-butter mixture with the egg-sugar mixture.

Add the flour and stir into a smooth dough.

Then put the finished dough into a springform pan lined with baking paper...

...and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 35 minutes.

Melt the butter for the chocolate cream in a small saucepan.

Roughly chop the chocolate, add it to the melted butter along with the honey and let it melt, stirring constantly, until you have a nice, uniform cream.

Let the chocolate cream cool slightly and then pour it onto the cake.

Then let the cake stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours so that the cream sets a little, and then serve. We had whipped cream and fresh strawberries with it!

Please keep the leftover cake well cooled - but if you put the cake in the fridge right before serving for the first time, I think the chocolate cream looks a bit different, and the cream then becomes quite solid.

[Translated from here.]