Christmas is coming, only 3 months to go...

Our Christmas book is published

Just in time before the Christmas season starts, our new book is published. It’s a book about Christmas in Iceland.

You can learn a lot about Icelandic Christmas traditions, e.g. about the 13 Yule Lads, about the terrible Christmas Cat, about the lights in the cemeteries, about how Icelanders celebrate their patron saint on December 23rd, about the Christmas flood of books, the fireworks sale for New Year`s Eve, the bonfires, which are lighted at the end of the Christmas season, and much more.

And you will also get many recipes of Icelandic Christmas cuisine. From cookies, confectionary and pastries through drinks like Christmas beer and mulled wine to complete main courses and desserts typical for the holidays.

“Yummy Iceland at Christmas Time – Recipes and Traditions” is the ideal gift for everyone, who’s interested in Iceland and who loves cooking and baking.

It is available at Amazon, either as hardcover in premium quality, as paperback, or as a Kindle version. 

More about it here.

Kjötsúpa

Hot meat soup

Ingredients

500 g lamb

750 ml water

1 chopped onion

250 g beets

150 g potatoes

150 g carrots

250 g white cabbage

1 leek

1/2 bunch of parsley

40 g oatmeal 


Preparation

Cut the meat into cubes, put it in a large saucepan. pour cold water over it and season with salt and pepper. 

On the stove then slowly bring to a boil without a lid. Skim off the resulting foam again and again. Simmer slowly for a good 30 minutes. 

When preparing the broth, the complete skimming of the forming grayish foam is the prerequisite for obtaining a clear broth. While the broth is boiling, you should not stir - this would release cloudy particles. 

Then add the oatmeal to the broth and stir in well. 

Wash the beets and potatoes, peel and cut into cubes. Clean the leeks and carrots as well and then cut into thin slices. Chop the onion into small pieces.

Put the vegetables in the pot and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Cut the white cabbage into strips and chop coarsely.

Add the cabbage to the soup and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Then add the herbs and stir.
 

Season again to taste with salt and pepper and serve. 

In Iceland, at least in the past, the meat was often fished out of the soup and served on a separate, additional plate, sometimes even with potatoes. But today you often get everything together, usually with a thick slice of freshly baked bread.

Remark:

The cooking time for the meat soup alone is already about one hour. So with all the trimmings you have to start cooking in time if you want to have a hot meal. However, the soup also tastes very delicious when warmed up again!

Sheep roundup in autumn

In Icelandic valleys you often pass large, circular buildings that from above look like an eye or a cut cake. These buildings are mostly made of wood or metal. They are "réttir", circular pens with sections in which farmers separate their herds after the sheep roundup in autumn. 

The sheep roundup is always a special local event in September in Iceland. People come together. Often relatives and friends who now live in the city come to help. Together the sheep are driven down from the highland pastures and finally sorted by farms in such large pens as this one here at Hveragerði. And when the work is done, people often talk, eat, sing and celebrate for a long time. 

For many of the sheep, however, it then goes more or less directly to the slaughterhouse. 

In Icelandic cuisine there are many delicious dishes with lamb and mutton. Of course, in the near future you will also find corresponding recipes here on the blog, e.g. for the traditional meat soup (kjötsúpa), a leg of lamb from the oven, many stew dishes, fried hearts, not to mention the classic sheep's head (svið). Already here available are recipes for lambakjöt með curry, lambaþríhyrningar með feta and lambakjöt með lakkríssósu.

By the way, lamb is also used in the production of the classic Icelandic hot dog sausages! 

Bláberjagrautur

Blueberry porridge

You can still collect the last blueberries, so I have a nice recipe for a fruity blueberry porridge for you. ..

Ingredients for 2 servings

500 ml water
200 g fresh blueberries
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of ground vanilla
50 g sugar
30 g potato flour


Preparation

Collect the blueberries. Wash them thoroughly.

Then add the blueberries to a large saucepan with the water, cinnamon and vanilla, and heat until everything is a uniform color.

Stir in the sugar in small portions. Be careful not to add too much sugar, depending on taste.

Mix the potato flour with some cold water.

Add this mass to the saucepan, bring everything to a boil and stir gently. Let it cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Then take the pot from the heat and let the blueberry compote cool down.

Traditionally, blueberry compote is eaten cold and served with fresh milk, AB milk, sour milk or cream.

Croissant brauðréttur

Croissant bread dish

Bread dishes ("brauðréttir") are quite popular in Iceland's everyday cuisine. Here I have a recipe in which no toast bread, but croissant is used - a delicious bread dish for a cozy breakfast.

The dish can be prepared very well the evening before and then stay covered overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning you take it out of the refrigerator so that it gets room temperature again. Meanwhile preheat the oven and then put the food into it. 

Ingredients for 4 people

4 croissants

4 slices of cheddar cheese

1 tsp butter

2 eggs

200 ml cream

100 ml milk

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

80 g Brie cheese

6 slices of ham

1 tsp butter

Preparation 

Slice the croissants open and put a slice of cheddar cheese into each one, Then close the croissants again.

Butter a casserole and place the croissants in it.

Cut the ham and brie into small pieces and spread as evenly as possible over the croissants.

In a bowl, mix the eggs with the cream, milk, salt, pepper and thyme, and pour the mixture over the croissants.

Add a little dried thyme on top of the croissants. Cover the casserole with aluminum foil. Let it steep in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper /lower heat, while leaving the croissants at room temperature.

Place the casserole with the aluminum foil at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for 20 minutes.

Then remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 10 minutes until the dish has turned golden brown.

Then serve directly.