Fiskur með skyrþaki

Skyr-roofed fish

We recently had this fish dish here, fillets of cod or haddock in a bed of fried onions and with a "roof" made of a nice thick skyr-mayonnaise-curry mixture, the whole thing then baked in the oven.

By the way, this dish was really well received by my family, only child 4 preferred fish fingers.

Ingredients

800 g fish fillet (cod or haddock)

2 onions

3 Tbsp butter

200 ml pure Skyr

100 ml mayonnaise

2 tsp curry spice

salt and pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C) upper/lower heat.

Peel the onion, chop it finely and fry it in a pan with the butter until lightly browned.

Then put the onions in a fireproof dish.

Place the fish fillet on the onion.

In a bowl, mix the skyr with the mayonnaise and spices...

...and spread the mixture over the fish.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish fillets).

Then serve the baked fish with potatoes and fresh salad.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Mokkakaka með mokkakremi

Mocha cake with mocha cream

We had our 21st wedding anniversary last week.

To celebrate the day, I baked a small cream cake with iced coffee and cappuccino powder in the cream.

And with pecans, both in the dough and on the cake as decoration.

Ingredients

200 g melted butter

175 ml iced coffee

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch of ground vanilla

350 g sugar

250 g flour

70 g coarsely chopped pecans

100 g coarsely chopped dark chocolate

500 ml whipping cream

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 tsp cappuccino powder

Preparation

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

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

Mix the melted butter, iced coffee, baking cocoa, salt and vanilla with the egg-sugar mixture.

Add the flour to the dough and stir in.

Crush the pecans...

...and mix the chopped nuts and chocolate with the remaining dough.

Pour the dough into two equal-sized springform pans (approx. 20 cm)...

... and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 25 to 30 minutes (test with a toothpick!).

Then let the bases cool thoroughly and carefully remove them from the mold.

Cut each base in half.

Now prepare the mocha cream:

Put the whipping cream, brown sugar and cappuccino powder in a suitable mixing vessel, mix briefly and then beat until the cream has become nice and stiff.

Place the first cake layer on a cake plate or similar, spread it with half of the cream and carefully place the second cake layer on top.

Continue until all four layers are layered on top of each other with the cream in between.

Spread the remaining cream on the top layer and decorate as desired, for example with grated chocolate.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Sumarsúpa

Summer soup

Holiday - tomorrow is the first day of summer in Iceland, sumardagurinn fyrsti . This is based on the old Icelandic calendar, which only had two seasons: 6 months of winter and 6 months of summer. The first month of summer, the month of Harpa, traditionally begins on the first Thursday after April 18th. This year the first day of summer falls on April 25, 2024 .

Traditionally, Icelanders celebrate the start of summer with family gatherings and local festivals.

The first day of summer was declared a public holiday in Iceland by law of December 24, 1971.

In keeping with the beginning of summer, I brought you a recipe for a summer soup - with fresh leeks, frozen vegetables (any mixture of peas, carrots, cauliflower, etc.), roux and then poured with milk and nicely seasoned. Even my youngest liked it, although he doesn't really like peas...

Ingredients for 2 - 3 servings

2 stalks of leeks

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

500 ml water

1 - 2 tsp vegetable broth powder

600 g frozen vegetables

240 ml milk

salt and pepper

Paprika spice

2 - 3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Wash and clean the leek and cut it into thin strips.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Fry the leek briefly in the butter, then add the flour over it and stir.

Pour in the water in portions, stirring constantly.

Add the vegetable broth powder and stir.

Put the frozen vegetables in the pot and let them cook with the lid closed for about 15 minutes.

Pour in the milk and stir, season with salt, pepper and paprika and add the fresh chopped parsley.

Stir thoroughly and let the soup simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Then serve the summer soup with fresh bread.

[Translated from here.]

Rúgbrauðssúpa með malti og appelsíni

Icelandic rye bread soup with malt & appelsín

Icelandic rye bread soup is a typical, traditional dish here in Iceland that seems to be on the menu of every school canteen at least once a month - sweet main dishes are quite popular here. You can also serve the soup in small portions as a dessert - the dish is actually quite filling.

Classic recipes like this recipe here on the blog from 2016 use Icelandic rye bread (rúgbrauð), malt beer and grated lemon peel, and often a little lemon juice too. Here I modified it a bit and used Malt og Appelsín . According to the manufacturer's description, Egil's mixture of malt beer and Appelsín (= very sweet, very colorful orange lemonade) is the "Icelandic national drink since 1955". The mixture is usually available at Christmas as "jólaöl" (= non-alcoholic Christmas beer), but also at Easter as "páskaöl" - and ready in cans all year round as "Malt og Appelsín".

After being offered it by a friend, "Malt og Appelsín" was also the current favorite drink of two of my older children when they visited us in Iceland before Easter.

Outside of Iceland, I recommend replacing the Rúgbrauð with pumpernickels and Malt & Appelsín with 200 ml malt beer and 130 ml orange lemonade.

Ingredients for 2 servings

240 g Icelandic rye bread

330 ml Malt & Appelsín

1/2 tsp vinegar

3 - 4 Tbsp raisins

1 pinch of cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

approx. 100 - 200 ml cold water as needed

whipping cream

Preparation

Cut the rye bread into small pieces, crumble it...

.... put in a large pot...

... and soak in the Malt & Appelsín for about 2 to 3 hours.

Add a little vinegar and bring to the boil for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Stir the cooked mixture thoroughly and crush it if necessary. If necessary, add a little more cold water until the bread soup has the desired consistency.

Then add the raisins and season the soup with cinnamon and salt.

Whip the cream until stiff.

Then serve the warm soup with the whipped cold cream.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Rúgbrauðsterta með jarðarberjum

Rye bread cake with strawberries

Sometimes it's not that easy to prepare a certain recipe in Iceland - I actually wanted to just bake a recipe for Rúgbrauðsterta that I've had on the blog since 2015 (and take new photos of it for the blog), but then I fail to buy the ingredients in the supermarket . That happens often here, so you just have to get creative.

The recipe actually called for 250 g of ground hazelnuts - they weren't available in the store. So I improvised and used 150 g ground almonds for consistency and 100 g chopped hazelnuts for flavor. In fact, the chopped nuts in the soft cake base were delicious and interesting to eat!

The cream was actually intended to contain equal parts ricotta cheese and whipping cream. I got whipping cream, but I didn't have ricotta in the supermarket. So I made do with cream cheese, but used more cream cheese than whipping cream so that the consistency was still right.

Blueberries were actually intended for the cake - I also had strawberry jam, so I just used that (also in the cream). It worked too!

This creates different versions of the same recipe every time... and it was extremely delicious!

(Outside of Iceland, I would use 250 g pumpernickel and 6 eggs and 380 g sugar for the recipe because Icelandic rúgbrauð is softer and sweeter than pumpernickel.)

Ingredients

250 g Rúgbrauð

150 g ground almonds

100 g chopped hazelnuts

5 large eggs

350 g sugar

2 tsp baking soda

300 g cream cheese

70 g powdered sugar

100 ml whipping cream

Strawberry jam

3 Tbsp grated dark chocolate

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C) upper/lower heat.

Crumble the Rúgbrauð.

In a large bowl, mix with the ground almonds and chopped hazelnuts using a hand mixer.

Separate the eggs.

Add the egg yolks with the sugar to the bread-nut mixture in the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Beat the egg white until stiff and carefully fold it into the dough.

Then bake the dough in two portions in a springform pan lined with baking paper (approx. 24 cm) in the lower third of the preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 25 minutes each (stick test!).

Allow the two bases to cool slightly, carefully remove them from the mold and allow them to cool thoroughly.

For the cream, mix the cream cheese with the powdered sugar.

Whip the cream until stiff and carefully fold it into the cream.

Place the first layer on a cake plate or something similar, spread it with strawberry jam and then spread almost half of the cream on top.

Place the second layer on top, spread with the remaining cream and sprinkle with the grated chocolate.

Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and then serve.

Tip:

I first filled a cake piping full of the finished cream for decoration and set it aside, then I added some strawberry jam for the color and spread half of the pink cream on both bases.

I then piped small heaps of the white cream onto the edge of the cake for the look.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]