Haustsúpa

Autumn soup with minced meat

It is now really autumn. The sheep roundups are over, the animals are back in the pastures on the farms or on the way to the butcher. The supplies for the winter are being prepared. The Icelandic cuisine in autumn is in accordance with this - for example, a typical Icelandic autumn soup consists of minced meat, with or without bacon, chopped tomatoes, broth and lots of vegetables and potatoes.

I brought you a recipe for such an autumn soup ( haustsúpa ) today. The soup is then served with a dollop of sour cream and herbs.

Ingredients

400 g ground beef

100 g bacon

1 pinch of cumin

2 tbsp oil

6 carrots

2 onions

6 potatoes

800 g chopped tomatoes

Salt and pepper

800 ml beef broth

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large pot.

Fry the caraway seeds...

...then add the minced meat and diced bacon and fry. Season with salt and pepper.

Peel carrots, onions and potatoes, cut into small pieces...

....and add to the pot and fry briefly.

Add the chopped tomatoes and beef broth.

Simmer the soup over low heat for at least 30 minutes.

Serve the soup with sour cream and chopped parsley.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Eplakökur og eplabökur

Various apple pie recipes

It's autumn outside. The leaves are changing color, it's glowing red and gold, the fog hangs between the hills... So time for the apple harvest...? Well, not in Iceland. Apple trees do not grow in the Icelandic climate.

While apples used to only be available as something very special at Christmas, today they are an integral part of many Icelandic dishes.

In the past, even in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, there were hardly any apples to buy in Iceland throughout the year. I heard from older Icelanders that you could occasionally buy apples at the pharmacy and a few vitamins for expensive money. But apples were usually only imported to Iceland by ship at Christmas. It was something very special for the children when they received an apple and an orange as a Christmas present - for many Icelanders at the time, the smell of this fruit was the epitome of Christmas.

Today that has changed, now in almost every Icelandic supermarket you can choose from at least two types of apples all year round, for prices between around 300 and 900 ISK per kilogram. On average, the price is currently the equivalent of around €3.65 / kg.

But I've heard very vivid descriptions from Icelanders who stood under an apple tree for the first time and were amazed that you could just pick an apple from the tree and actually eat it...

Apples used to be a special luxury in Icelandic cuisine. When I think about that, I really realize how proud the people in Laugarvatnshellar, for example, must have been of their pan for the apple fritters. You can of course also find a traditional recipe for such eplaskífur here on the blog.

Even though apples used to be something special, you can also find many recipes for apple dishes and pastries in old Icelandic cookbooks, and today apples are definitely part of everyday cooking.

You can also find many different recipes for apple cakes on my blog, for example for classic apple cake , for apple cake with vanilla filling and caramel sauce, for a quick everyday apple cake with lots of cinnamon, a very appley apple cake with chopped almonds, a traditional apple cake from the tray or for Eplabúðingur, a delicious winter apple dessert with a pinch of cinnamon. Or a sweet apple bread that tastes really good even on the second and third day when beautifully buttered.

If you don't feel like sweet pastries, you can of course also find savory apple dishes on the blog, for example a tuna and apple salad with leeks and skyr, a fennel and apple salad , which is traditionally served primarily as a side dish Fish dishes were served, a beetroot salad with apple and sour cream or a recipe for cod with bacon and apple cheese sauce .

Apples are wonderfully versatile!

And if you really want to go quickly, you can simply prepare an apple-cinnamon skyr drink .

So now you can indulge in a variety of Icelandic apple dishes to your heart's content this fall! Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Bananabrauð

Banana bread

Recently a friend of mine had a question: She had bought a delicious banana bread in a shop in Flúðir, less bread, actually more of a cake, similar to marble or lemon cake, but with banana flavor. She wanted to bake something like this herself, but was still looking for a recipe. The recipes she had found on my blog were too much in the direction of bread and not enough in the direction of cake...

So at the weekend I tried another recipe and baked it together with my grandchild - and the result was this very tasty, very fluffy banana bread, actually much more cake than bread.

I was very happy with the result, but both my grandchild and my youngest offspring were completely thrilled and both tucked in extensively. There was only a tiny piece left.

Ingredients

2 large ripe bananas

50 g melted butter

2 eggs

200 g sugar

200 g flour

50 g milk

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of ground vanilla

Preparation

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

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until fluffy.

Then add flour, baking powder, vanilla and cinnamon and stir.

Puree the bananas thoroughly.

Add the banana puree with the melted butter and milk to the bowl and mix well until you have a nice, uniform dough.

Place the dough in a loaf pan lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 40 to 50 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Then let the cake cool down a bit

... and then serve with whipped cream if you like.

[Translated from here.]

Landslide in Hveradalir geothermal area

Southeast of Reykjavík, about 20 km from the outskirts of the city, you will pass a very active geothermal area, right next to the ring road. We like to make a first stop here when we pick up visitors from the airport to get a first impression of Iceland - because here it steams and hisses and bubbles and smells intensely of sulfur. I like the smell, then I know - I'm really in Iceland! Well, not all visitors react positively to the smell, some even call it stink.

There was a landslide here in July 2024, and the changes around the footpath through the high temperature area really made me realize how sensitive nature is and how quickly all sorts of things can fly in your face - in the ull sense of the word.

Before and after picture

If you drive from Reykjavík over the Hellisheiði plateau towards Hveragerði, you will pass the turnoff to the Hellisheiðarvirkju n power plant. If you drive towards the power plant, after a few meters a small road (378) branches off to the right, which leads to Skíðaskálinn, the ski hut in Hveradalir.

There is a small but very exciting geothermal area here to visit. As I said, we like to make a quick first stop here when we pick up visitors from the airport, and I think it's worth it, even though parking has recently become chargeable.

But you also get something here:

You can walk through the area on special "hovering walkways" and directly experience, smell (it really smells intensely of sulfur!) and feel the geothermal energy. There are information boards along the path about the history of this geothermal area and the peculiarities of such areas.

These walkways hover above the hot earth and have only a few points of contact with the ground. This minimizes interference with nature and the paths can be easily changed, adapted and maintained. And adapting to changing nature is actually necessary here.

There was a landslide here in mid-July 2024, southeast of the ski hut.

It was probably a combination of several factors that triggered the landslide, according to the responsible geologist from Reykjavík Energy on site. A wide stream of gray clay poured down from the hill to the street.

According to the expert from the district heating company, there was probably steam activity in the fumaroles in the ground, which weakened the top layer of the earth, and due to the heavy rainfall over the weekend, the ground was probably so saturated with water that it ultimately collapsed under its own weight. The landslide broke through the top layer of soil, which probably caused the hot spring to boil heavily and the spring clay then sprayed in all directions. The landslide, combined with the outflow of the spring clay, probably did not happen too quickly; it probably took several minutes until the gray mud reached the gravel road - and stopped there. The expert believes this scenario is at least more likely than that a sudden steam explosion in the spring triggering the landslide.

Here you can clearly see how much the place has changed again during the event - whereas previously you could walk along the path for quite some distance, the footbridge now ends further ahead and hovers over an abyss of steam and nothingness that wasn't there before was there.

I have no idea how deep this "nothing" is, but it is certainly steaming and bubbling tremendously around the jetty and in some places the hot gray mud from the fumaroles is splashing onto the slabs, at least when we were there in early August 2024 to look at the landslide.

Incidentally, in August 2024, concrete plans for a planned large development on the Skíðaskáli were also announced:

The ski lodge is to be expanded by 500 m², with a greenhouse, restaurant and a French-style après-ski bar as well as a spa with mud baths. A hotel with 150 rooms is to be built opposite the ski hut. The construction of a swimming lagoon is also planned (on the left at the edge of the picture). And of course corresponding parking spaces for both the lagoon and the hotel.

Sketch of the planned innovations
Source: mbl.is / Alternance

A variety of activities are also planned in the area, including running and cycling trails and ski slopes. By the way, the slopes should be usable all year round; the slope should be covered with appropriate plastic mats for this purpose.

To be honest - I'm not yet sure whether the construction project in this form really makes sense here. Personally, it would be too risky for me to invest money here in such an active high-temperature area, in the middle of hot water vapor, gases and spitting mud pots, where the hot steam sometimes melts the asphalt of the ring road...

PS:

Photo from 2019

If the ski lodge looks familiar to you even though you've never been here - then maybe it's because you've seen the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".

The movie is a 2013 American comedy-drama film directed and starring Ben Stiller.

The movie is about the head of the negative archive of a renowned magazine, who regularly loses himself in daydreams and then suddenly finds himself having adventures in real life. In Greenland he has to jump out of a drunk pilot's helicopter into the ice-cold North Atlantic and ends up in a group of sharks, in Iceland he gets caught in the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and finally he hikes through Afghanistan on foot - and most of the scenes from his adventures were filmed in Iceland, regardless of whether they are set in Greenland, Iceland or Afghanistan:

• When Walter Mitty flies to Greenland, he lands in the film at Nuuk airport - the scene was filmed at Hornafjörður domestic airport, 7 km north of Höfn - in Iceland.

• When Walter Mitty drinks beer out of glass boots in a bar in Nuuk on Greenland - the scene was filmed in Stykkishólmur, on Snæfellsnes peninsula, where the ferry to Flatey and the Westfjords leaves.

• When Walter Mitty goes to Stykkishólmur in the film, it was filmed in Seyðisfjörður - well, they had already used Stykkishólmur for Nuuk.

• When Walter Mitty finally cycles through Afghanistan, he passes Skogafoss, on the south coast of Iceland.

• In a scene when the volcanic eruption in Iceland is imminent, Walter Mitty meets an Icelandic family in front of an empty hotel / restaurant and exchanges his rubber doll for a skateboard with one of the children - this scene was filmed here in front of the Skíðaskálinn.

Here are pictures from the movie:

You can definitely recognize the Skíðaskálinn, even if the colors had been slightly changed for the movie and the outbuilding with the decorated roof had been added.

Let's wait and see what things will look like here in a few years...

[Translated from here.]

Fröken Selfoss

May contain traces of advertisment. *

In August we were invited to dinner at "Fröken Selfoss", an Icelandic menu that really contains almost everything that is associated with Icelandic cuisine. An absolutely great culinary experience that entirely delighted us.

In the "New City Center" of Selfoss, 13 historic, but now destroyed, residential and commercial buildings from all over Iceland were recreated in the first construction phase. I think the place has really gained a lot from the new city center! And I personally think the replicas of the old houses are very beautiful.

One of the houses is Smjörhúsið, or the butter house. The original butter house was built in 1797 by the Icelandic merchant Bjarni Sívertsen (1763 - 1833) at Hafnarstræri 22 in Reykjavík, who opened a branch here. The house later belonged to the Icelandic entrepreneur and politician Tryggvi Gunnarsson (1835 - 1917), whose commitment led to the construction of the first bridge over the Ölfusá - without this bridge, Selfoss would certainly not have become the economic center of southern Iceland. The house on Hafnarstræti was then bought by the Danish company IRMA, which ran a shop here until 1943, mainly selling butter and margarine. The name “Smjörhúsið” was emblazoned in large letters on the front of the house back then, giving it its name. The house in Reykjavík was demolished in 1977 and brought back to life in the New Center of Selfoss in 2021. The restaurant “Fröken Selfoss” is now located in the basement at Brúartorg.

The “Fröken Selfoss” opened in autumn 2023. "Miss Selfoss" offers great food and cocktails. According to the company, it is a moderately fine dining restaurant that offers friendly service and appetizing and tasty dishes. The focus is on Icelandic ingredients.

There are many agricultural producers in South Iceland in particular, so "Fröken Selfoss" can make full use here and buy fresh, high-quality products from their neighbors in the region, fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables every day, but also fresh fish and fresh meat or liqueurs from a regional distillery.

These high-quality ingredients are then processed in the kitchen at “Fröken” and put together in an exciting, innovative way to create a modern, sometimes completely new taste experience. The focus here is always on freshness, wholesomeness and taste .

The ambience of the restaurant is very beautiful and elegant and you notice how carefully all the details are coordinated so that everything forms a perfectly harmonious whole - just like with the dishes.

The full Icelandic menu

The owners invited us as food bloggers to eat at "Fröken Selfoss" and served us "Stóri Íslenski seðillinn" as a special house specialty, i.e. the "Full Icelandic Menu".

The appetizers

We are traditionally served this small appetizer platter - Hákarl, harðfiskur, smjör and brennivín as well as þurrkað ærfillet. So small cubes of fermented fermented shark, dried fish with butter and, to wash it down, Icelandic schnapps (Brennivín). And dried sheep fillet, more precisely ewe fillet (ærfillet).

All are classic Icelandic specialties and really all of very good quality. The dried fish was nice and floury and was easy to eat, also well buttered. But the cold-smoked, dried meat from the ewe was an absolute surprise - so far I have only ever experienced dried meat completely dried out and relatively hard. But this one was dry on the outside and wonderfully soft on the inside, just a perfect treat! Never eaten like this before - and so incredibly delicious!

The waitress gave us a short introduction, told us a bit about the individual components and also pointed out that it was a good idea not to touch the rotten shark with your fingers, but only with a toothpick - otherwise you'll have the smell for days on the fingers!

In addition to the menu, we got two liqueurs (líkjör) - the dark red one was Wild Berries and was almost reminiscent of port wine, the light one was a very tasty rhubarb liqueur. By the way, the liqueurs also come from a local distillery.

This was the second part of the starters - I immediately fell in love with the way the food was served! And then the taste...an absolute highlight for me!

We were served three different delicacies on very crusty, thin flatbread (flatbrauð):

There was smoked, slow-cooked char, with an oriental-inspired ginger sauce - an absolute highlight for both of us, interesting, crispy and soft at the same time, different flavors perfectly put together and simply incredibly delicious!

There was also cured, slow-cooked goose, served with wild Icelandic blueberries (aðalbláber) and horseradish mayonnaise. Also very tasty.

The third was ceviche, actually a fish dish from South American cuisine, with chopped seafood, onions and limes. Served here on crispy Icelandic flatbread, with tomatoes, parsley and chili mayonnaise. My husband isn't necessarily a big fan of seafood, but we both really liked this, especially with the slight chili flavor.

The main courses

The first main course consisted, very traditionally, of typical Icelandic meat soup (kjötsúpa), also served in the classic way with Icelandic rye bread (rúgbrauð) and butter - very traditional food, also traditionally prepared, and really perfect. A pleasure all around!

The second main course was hægelduð lambamjöðm, ofnbakað grænmeti og kartöflur, pikklaður rauðlaukur og brún sósa, i.e. roasted lamb sirloin, oven-baked vegetables and potatoes, with pickled red onions and brown sauce.

Lamb with potatoes, vegetables and brown sauce - that sounds like typical, perhaps somewhat boring home cooking, right? In fact, the dish couldn't have been further from boring home cooking! The lamb sirloin was absolutely perfect, crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. Plus potatoes in four different versions, from small potatoes in the skins to potato gratin. The cold, sourish onions were the perfect counterpoint to the warm, sweet gratin. And the intense dark sauce... just a real pleasure all around!

Since the "Fröken Selfoss" is not only known for its perfect Icelandic food, but also for its cocktails, my husband was allowed to choose a "signature cocktail" - he chose a Rabarbararúna after the delicious rhubarb liqueur. With rhubarb, violet liqueur, hibiscus tea, wine foam and dried rose petals.

Slurping bath water...

I fell in love just by looking at the "bathtub" in which this cocktail is served - this cute bathtub with its little feet, the light foam and the dried flowers. The illusion of foamy bath water with a bath bomb in it was just perfect! And my husband was also very impressed with the taste - simply brilliant, visually and taste-wise!

The dessert

The menu also includes skyr as a dessert, namely traditional Icelandic skyr, served with liquid cream, blueberries and plenty of sugar. Add a small glass of sugar, which you can use to sweeten if necessary. That's something!

If you buy blueberry skyr in an Icelandic supermarket, it will basically contain these ingredients, but all mixed together and in a uniform mass. Here everything is separate and you can consciously taste the individual components with every bite, the sour skyr, the sweet, liquid cream, the fresh berries, plus the sugar that crunches between your teeth... an absolute pleasure!

For us as food bloggers, instead of the second skyr dessert that is actually part of the menu, we had a rabbarbara baka. This is a type of pie with rhubarb and apple pieces, baked with oatmeal crumbles and berries and served with a scoop of ice cream.

Another traditional Icelandic dish, and once again perfectly prepared, warm and cold at the same time, soft and crispy, sour and sweet... everything put together perfectly! Even though we were almost too full by now to be able to appreciate this delicious dessert as much as the dish deserved.

Let's talk about the price...

The “stóri Íslenski seðillinn”, i.e. the “full Icelandic menu”, costs 13,990 ISK per person, or around € 90. It is only served for two people or more. The rhubarb cocktail in the bathtub costs 2,990 ISK, the equivalent of just under € 20. And the Rabbarbara baka alone costs 2,590 ISK, just under € 17. Plus the two liqueurs... definitely not a cheap treat. But that's actually never what eating out in Iceland is like - and the meal at "Fröken Selfoss" was first-class Icelandic food, definitely worth the money.

If you don't want to treat yourself to the full Icelandic menu on special occasions, you can also enjoy really good food for lunch or dinner at "Fröken" at a fair price.

On the lunch menu you will find, for example, hamburgers with bacon, cheese and salad as well as fries and garlic sauce for 3,890 ISK (approx. € 25), Plokkfiskur with rye bread and butter for 3,490 ISK (currently around € 22) or the fish of the day for 3,590 ISK (a good € 23).

On the evening menu you can choose between salad, two meat and two fish dishes as well as meat soup and hamburger for the main courses. Prices range between 3,690 ISK (around € 24) and up to 6,690 ISK (just under € 44). By the way, the delicious grilled lamb rump with all the ingredients that was part of our Icelandic menu is also on the menu here.

As a dessert you can then choose between the traditional Skyr for 1,790 ISK (a good € 11.50), chocolate cake with Skyr cream and berries or the rhubarb cake for 2,590 ISK each (just under € 17).

The signature cocktails are priced between 1,790 ISK and 3,490 ISK, i.e. between around € 11.50 and just under € 23). The non-alcoholic cocktail is also priced at 1,790 ISK.

If you compare what you pay for average Icelandic food in an average Icelandic restaurant, the prices are similar - but at "Fröken Selfoss" you don't get average food, you get really exciting, top quality food.

The people behind “Fröken Selfoss”

Behind "Fröken Selfoss" are Árni B. Hafdal Bjarnason and Guðný Sif Jóhannsdóttir .

Árni is a trained chef and has worked for years in many different positions in the catering and hotel industry, from catering for large events (e.g. at Þorrablót) to cooking events at home. Guðý Sif is a trained paramedic and worked, among other things, in the Landspítali and in a home for the disabled. Today she is responsible for marketing for the joint company. The couple has been living in Selfoss with their two daughters since the end of 2022.

In June 2021, the couple opened their first restaurant, Samúelsson Matbar in the new Mjólkurbú Food Hall in Selfoss. The restaurant is named after Guðjón Samúelsson (1887 - 1950), the "húsameistari ríksins", who, as Iceland's state architect, designed, among other things, the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the church in Akureyri, the Hotel Borg in Reykjavík, the swimming pool in the Barónsstígur, but also in 1929 the former company building of the dairy cooperative in Selfoss, the Mjólkurbú.

Groovís - Ice Cream and Donuts

In spring 2023, Árni and Guðný Sif also took over the operation of the ice cream parlor in the new city center. Since April 2023, “Groovís” has been offering unusual, colorful desserts, creative mixtures of ice cream, mini donuts and cotton candy.

Another special feature of Groovís is that orders are generally placed online or via an on-site operating terminal, so that employees can concentrate efficiently on processing the various orders.

“Fröken Selfoss” was added in November 2023. The “Fröken” was originally designed as a tapas bar, with many different small delicacies on many different small plates. However, the many plates turned out to be a problem - too many dirty dishes, they couldn't keep up with the washing in the small kitchen, and too staff-intensive, both in service and in the kitchen.

So in June 2024, Árni and Guðný Sif revised the concept and consciously focused on Icelandic food, classic Icelandic cuisine made from high-quality Icelandic ingredients for Icelanders and visitors, many traditional dishes, but with a very individual twist they have become something very special - fine kitchen in perfection!

As part of the reorganization, the prices were reduced so that visitors not only come every few months, but can also afford good food at a fair price more often. Instead of many small dishes, there are now a few large dishes on the menu which you can also eat your fill.

In a conversation at the counter, Árni told us that his goal is to earn a Michelin recommendation in the next years with his typical Icelandic dishes, far from simple home cooking. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him - if you ask us, Árni's food and his love for food down to the last detail really deserve it.

Thank you once again for the invitation to an absolutely perfect Icelandic meal, we couldn't have imagined the meal to be better or more exciting!

So the next time you're in Selfoss and want to eat something really special, Icelandic cuisine to perfection, we can only recommend "Fröken Selfoss" to you.

* 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.

[Translated from here.]