Vanille kaka

Historical vanilla cake

This cake recipe comes from an old Icelandic cookbook from 1858 - so people have been eating the cake in Iceland for at least 165 years - a very historical cake! (That's why it's still called "Vanilla kaka", even though in today's Icelandic it would be more like "Vanillukaka".)

Plus, it's a deceptively simple recipe, with ingredients you can always have on hand at home - eggs, sugar, flour and a little vanilla for flavor.

According to the cookbook, the recipe should make 10 servings - you should use a pound of sugar, a pound of flour and actually 20 eggs and then bake the dough as a sheet cake. Somehow that was too much for me - so I only prepared half the amount of dough and baked the cake in a smaller baking pan (approx. 40 x 25 cm). The six of us ate it with coffee - there was a little bit left...

Incidentally, all six test eaters unanimously recommend serving the cake with whipped cream and perhaps a few fresh fruits.

Ingredients

10 eggs

250 g white sugar

120 g potato flour

120 g wheat flour

1 tsp ground vanilla

Preparation

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

Separate the eggs.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar thoroughly until fluffy.

Add the potato flour, wheat flour and ground vanilla and mix everything well.

Beat the egg whites in a tall mixing bowl or similar until stiff and fold into the dough.

Then put the finished dough into a greased loaf pan (approx. 40 x 25 cm) or lined with baking paper...

... and bake in the preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 35 minutes until the top is nice and golden brown (test with a toothpick!).

Then serve the cake with fresh whipped cream or something similar.

[Translated from here.]

Alþjóðlegi vöffludagurinn

World Waffle Day

It now feels like there is a day for everything - and World Waffle Day is March 25th.

In Iceland you often have delicious waffles, classic thin waffles, thick Belgian waffles... usually served with lots of cream and various jams or fruits. And very practical when unexpected visitors come over for coffee.

We've eaten such delicious waffles in very different places in Iceland, whether on the island of Viðey off Reykjavík, in the eco-village of Sólheimar, in a discarded bus and in a cozy little café deep in the Westfjords... And - you see where these pictures were taken...?

By the way, did you know...

...that in Iceland it is traditionally customary to bake waffles together after the successful conclusion of collective bargaining ...? When the smell of freshly baked waffles permeates the negotiating rooms, it is a sure sign that the strike is over.

During the dispute last month between the Efling union and the employers' association in the capital area, a jam company brought a bag of various jams to the negotiators as a nice gesture - and probably also as an invitation to please come to an agreement.

Here on the blog you will of course also find various recipes for waffles :

You can choose from very classic waffles (the recipe is from 2015 and therefore one of my old recipes here on the blog), a recipe from an old Icelandic cookbook for waffles with a pinch of cardamom, a recipe for skyr waffles, or even a recipe for hearty ones Waffles with cheese and ham.

And if you like, you can even try licorice waffles , waffles with small licorice chocolate pieces.

With that in mind - more waffles for everyone! Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Blómkálssúpa

Cauliflower soup

There are just under four weeks left until Easter... Child no. 2 has been meat-free during Lent for several years, so today we had this cauliflower soup for dinner.

The majority of the family liked it, only child no. 4 wasn't completely convinced, but he's not the biggest cauliflower fan either. But he also got full...

Ingredients for 4 - 6 people

2 small heads of cauliflower

2 liters of water

120 g butter

4 Tbsp flour

2 egg yolks

250 ml cream

2 tsp vegetable broth powder

1 pinch of coarse sea salt

1 pinch of black pepper

Preparation

Clean and wash the cauliflower heads and remove the stalk.

Let the cauliflower florets cook in the water for about 30 minutes until everything is nice and soft.

Then drain the water, collect it (it will still be used for the soup!) and puree the cauliflower with the blender.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the flour.

Add the cauliflower water in portions and stir until a nice consistency is achieved. Season with a little more vegetable broth powder, salt and pepper. (I used about 1 liter of cauliflower water.)

Put the egg yolks in a bowl and mix thoroughly with 50 ml of cream and 50 ml of the roux soup.

Add the soup, the egg yolk mixture and the remaining cream to the pot with the pureed cauliflower and stir over a very low heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Then serve the cauliflower soup with bread and butter, herb baguette or similar.

[Translated from here.]

Icelandic cuisine is TOTALLY terrible...

... at least if you believe a recent survey from the Taste Atlas website.

Currently, around 140,000 members of the site have voted on and rated around 16,000 dishes from all over the world. The result is a list of the best and worst cuisines worldwide and the best / worst dishes.

Current ranking: Iceland in 91st place out of 95

The "Taste Atlas" sees itself as a culinary travel guide for authentic, traditional dishes worldwide. It has existed since 2018. The national cuisines of 95 countries are currently being compared here.

From Italy (first place) to Norway (last place)

In the current ranking , Italian cuisine is in first place (with 4.72 out of 5.0 points), followed by Greek and Spanish cuisine .

German cuisine is in 15th place (with 4.37 points), Austrian cuisine is in 33rd place (with 4.09 points) and Swiss cuisine is only in 83rd place (with 3.82 out of 5.0 points).

Well - and traditional Icelandic cuisine is considered one of the worst in the world:

With 3.80 points, Iceland is only in 91st place in the Taste Atlas. After that comes only Canadian cuisine, Latvian cuisine and Moroccan cuisine and in 95th place out of 95 is Norwegian cuisine (with 3.48 out of 5.0 points ).

Hversdagsmatur - everyday Icelandic cuisine

According to the site, the rating was "traditional everyday cuisine", and the Icelandic dishes were apparently not particularly well received by eaters from all over the world - or perhaps they simply did not know them and therefore did not rate them.

I took a closer look at the site to see what traditional Icelandic everyday dishes are mentioned there. Here is the list of the 15 most common everyday dishes according to “ Taste Atlas ”:

1. Svið - singed sheep's head (0/5 points)

2. Harðfiskur - dried fish (3.2/5)

3. Hákarl - Rotten Shark (1.7/5)

4. Kjötsúpa - meat soup (4.3/5)

5. Fish and Chips (3.6/5)

6. Þorramatur (2.4/5)

7. Hangikjöt - lamb smoked over sheep dung (0/5)

8. Rúgbrauð - sweet rye bread (3.9/5)

9. Icelandic Hot Dog (3.6/5)

10. Vinarterta (n/a)

11. Broddur - baked colostrum pudding (4.4/5)

12. Laufabrauð (kA)

13. Ábrystir - colostrum pudding (n/a)

14. Flatkaka - Icelandic flatbread (n/a)

15. Skyronnes - Skyr-naise with herbs (n/a)

Okay - if the majority of the testers from "Taste Atlas" don't necessarily warm to singed sheep's head, I can still understand that. This is certainly "everyday cooking" and you can find sheep's head in the freezer of practically every supermarket, but I am also aware that not everyone wants to be so directly confronted with the animal they are eating. And dried fish or rotten shark certainly can't inspire everyone. The intense taste of Hangikjöt also takes some getting used to, well, let's say.

But apparently many people who voted on the site have probably never eaten Icelandic dishes before, for example when no one seems to have judged Vínarterta or Laufabrauð or Flatkaka. Maybe many people don't know the other dishes, so many delicious things weren't rated well..? And if the selection starts with singed sheep's head and continues with rotten shark... but that's really not what you get every day in the cafeteria or the school canteen or in the restaurant.

I find it amazing that two colostrum puddings appear in the list, because you can't even get colostrum (foremilk, ie the first thick milk a few days after birth) in the supermarket in Iceland, so it's not quite easy to prepare such dishes if you don't live on a farm yourself (or do a bulk purchase at the Kolaportið flea market, where I've also seen colostrum in large plastic bottles).

But I'm missing a lot of traditional dishes on the list, such as plokkfiskur, pearl barley, nothing with rhubarb, none of the legendary, delicious Icelandic desserts, no carrot cake, no cinnamon rolls, not even marital bliss or Ástarpungar...?!? Nothing with licorice chocolate..?!?

And I'm not entirely sure whether "fish and chips" and "hot dogs" really have to be viewed as traditional everyday cuisine. Of course, you can get it almost everywhere at the gas station or in a fast food joint, so you really eat it every day. And the lamb sausage in the hot dogs is certainly something specifically Icelandic, but all in all...? I'm not entirely sure about that...

Particularly popular products

The website also lists particularly popular Icelandic foods:

1. Skyr

2. White mold cheese

3. Sea hare roe

4. Kæst skata - fermented skate

5. Lightly smoked whale

Well, I can completely understand the Skyr.

And I also know the cheese from the supermarket - and I definitely think it's delicious. We just have it in the fridge again...

But sea hare roe...? Yes, I've already encountered sea hare roses in Iceland, but I wouldn't consider it an "everyday food" and I don't think it's all that ubiquitous either.

The fermented stingray is actually only available at Christmas, i.e. at the Þorláksmessa on December 23rd, with the "kneaded fat" on the side - and that actually polarizes Icelanders too, not everyone loves this dish or can smell it, while for others it is really the epitome of Christmas dinner. But not “everyday life” either.

Incidentally, Brennivín was listed as the most popular Icelandic drink by “Taste Atlas” - but also as the only Icelandic drink.

Overall, I find the rating a bit unfair - and the selection of "typical everyday dishes" even more so. Icelandic cuisine is not just sheep's head and rotten shark, there are also a lot of very tasty dishes that you can take a look at here on the blog and try out for yourself with the recipes.

With that in mind - good luck, bon appetit to everyone!

[Translated from here.]