In Iceland you can get salted meat in practically every small supermarket. In other countries (like in Germany) that's not the case. Hence you have to pickle your saltkjöt yourself!
Ingredients
2 kg of lamb in one piece 150 g salt some water
Preparation
Rub the lamb with the salt...
Place in a large cooking pot, add a little water so that the bottom of the pot is covered with the meat by approx. 2 - 3 cm, and then place the pot with the lid in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
Turn the meat once or twice a day so that it can penetrate well on all sides.
There are many traditional recipes with salted meat in Icelandic cuisine, for example "saltkjöt og baunir", pea soup with salted meat, or "soðið saltkjöt", boiled salted meat with mashed turnips.
The recipes for these dishes will follow here in the blog in the coming days!
You can get this pastry in various versions and variants in practically every supermarket in Iceland - I had already tried one version last year, but here comes the slightly more elaborate version with real, homemade Danish pastry!
Ingredients for the dough
500 g ground flour 50 g sugar 50 g soft butter 1 egg 1 packet of dry yeast 250 ml lukewarm milk 200 g cold butter
Ingredients for the vanilla cream 250 ml milk 1 tsp ground vanilla 150 g sugar 5 egg yolks 150 g potato starch 50 g soft butter 250 ml whipping cream
Ingredients for the chocolate icing
100 g chocolate 50 g butter
Preparation - first the dough
Mix the flour and sugar, knead in the soft butter and egg.
Add the dry yeast, pour in the lukewarm milk, mix everything and work into a smooth, supple dough without cracks and let it stand for about 15 minutes.
Then roll out the dough thinly into a square between two pieces of baking paper on the work surface. Cut the cold, hard butter into thin slices, now process the first quarter of the butter:
Cover half of the dough with the butter slices (leave an approx. 2 cm wide edge!), fold the other half of the dough on top and press it closed at the edges.
Then carefully roll out the dough thinly again, fold it together again, fold it in and fold it in again. Then put the package in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Now process the 2nd quarter of the butter in the same way - roll out the dough thinly into a square, cover half with the butter slices, leave the edge free, then fold it up, roll it out thinly and fold it, then put it in the cold again.
Repeat with the last two quarters of the butter until the dough is ready. Then chill the finished dough again in the refrigerator.
Now prepare the pudding cream:
Heat the 250 ml milk with the vanilla in a saucepan and bring to the boil briefly.
In a separate bowl, beat the 5 egg yolks with 150 g sugar and 150 g potato starch until foamy. Then pour in the warm vanilla milk in portions and stir.
Then put everything back in the pot and cook gently, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens.
Then pour the cream directly into a cold bowl and add 50 g butter.
Whip the cream (250 ml) until stiff and mix with the vanilla cream.
Finally, let the cream cool down a little in the fridge.
Prepare the finished bread dough: Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C) upper/lower heat.
Take the finished dough out of the fridge, roll it out on a work surface lined with baking paper and cut into two long strips. Place the dough strips on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Carefully spread the vanilla cream over the middle of the dough strips.Then “fold” the dough over, but leave a little space in the middle.
(I placed molds between the two strips of dough on the baking tray so that the "loaves" didn't spread too much in width... not perfect, but it served its purpose!)
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 20 minutes until the dough has taken on a pleasant brown color.
Now melt the butter for the glaze, add the chocolate to the hot, melted butter and gently stir everything together until smooth. When the Vínarbrauð comes out of the oven, brush it right in the middle. Then cut into thin strips and let cool thoroughly.
For this recipe you use “beikon”, i.e. bacon in thin slices, fry them in the pan and then break them into small pieces before adding the spinach to the pan.Not exactly true to the original, I simply used bacon cubes for this recipe...
Ingredients for 9 muffins
1 Tbsp oil 1 chopped onion 100 g bacon 120 g frozen spinach
6 eggs 80 g grated cheese 1/2 tsp salt 1 pinch of pepper 1 pinch of chili powder
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the bacon and onion. Add the frozen spinach and fry briefly.
Then whisk the eggs with the grated cheese in a large bowl. Stir in salt, pepper and a little bit of chili powder...
...and add the fried onions, bacon and spinach and stir in.
Pour the egg mixture into muffin cases (either with paper cases or preferably in silicone moulds) and bake in the preheated oven for approx. 15 - 20 minutes.
Allow to cool briefly, carefully remove from the mold and serve warm.
