Posts

Updates and changelog

I have finally found some time to do some updating. I used to host my photos on an external photo hosting site that offered free hosting, but it was bought out and monetized, and since this is a labour of love and I have no income from it, I decided to stop using a paid service. I never got round to saving all my food photos in one folder, so I have to go through my considerable collection of photographs to find them again, or to find better ones. I am also planning to check all the links and update or remove the ones that are outdated or dead and to go over the text of all the recipes to fix the formatting, update them and alter as necessary and correct any errors I might find.  I may also add some photos to recipes that don‘t have any. Don‘t worry, I am not going to add four pages of chatter to each entry to make the blog more searchable (according to Google) – the formula will still just be a short intro and maybe a couple of paragraphs about what the recipe means...
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Icelandic Christmas recipes

Since the holiday season in upon us I decided to gather together all the Christmas recipes I have published on this blog. I chose to do it this way rather than repost them because the comments get lost when reposting. I plan to make this an annual post, with new recipes added as they come along, so if you have comments, please comment on the recipes themselves, unless you don't mind if your comments go missing every time I repost this list. So here they are, starting with the Christmas dinner dishes: Starters or desserts: Rice pudding Ris a la mande Vanilla ice cream Main dishes: Hangikjöt (smoked lamb) Pork rib roast Roast lamb Rock ptarmigan Side dishes and accompaniments: Leaf bread Christmas cocktail Pickled red cabbage Caramel potatoes Cakes and cookies: Gingerbread sandwich cookies   Sarah Bernhardt cookies Jewish cookies Half-moons Coconut wreaths Siggi's cookies Syrup cookies Air cookies Spice cake with buttercream Christmas cake
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Þorrablót or Thorrablot (Icelandic midwinter feast)

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Here you will find some information about the traditional Icelandic foods eaten at the Þorri feasts or Þorrablót . The links will take you to recipes or instructions for making some of these foods. Note: I can‘t find some of the photos I have of these foods and will add them as and when I either find them or am able to take new ones. Þorri is one of the old Icelandic lunar months. It begins on the first Friday of the 13th week of winter, which is usually between January 19th and 25th, but can occasionally begin on January 26th. It then ends ends on a Saturday between the 18th and 24th of February. The first day of Þorri is called Bóndadagur (Husband's Day/Farmer's Day - bóndi can mean either), and is dedicated to men (formerly only farmers). Since this is the coldest time of the winter, it is no surprise that Þorri has become a personification of King Winter. He is usually portrayed as an old man, tall and grizzled, who is as cruel to those who disrespect him as he is...
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Photos

As you may have noticed, Photobucket is holding some of my photos hostage. The "ransom" is not tremendously high, but instead of paying it, I think I shall consider this a hint to spruce up the blog a bit as I move my photo hosting over to Google Photo Albums. I don't have a tremendous amount of time available for this, so the photos will come back online gradually as I work my way back through the blog and update the posts.
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Simple remoulade recipe

I was given this recipe by a friend, but haven't personally tested it, so I'm not making any guarantees as to originality or similarity to Gunnars remúlaði. 100 grams mayonnaise 50 grams sour cream 3-4 tbs. sweet relish (she uses the Heinz brand) dash of mustard dash of curry powder Stir together well and adjust spices. Serve with fried fish or hot dogs.
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Skyr vs. traditional skyr

I’ve just been reading an interesting report by Matís, an Icelandic biotech R&D institute, about skyr.  They make a distinction between modern skyr and traditional skyr and one of the conclusions they come to is that MS Skyr is not traditional because it deviates from the traditional methods of making skyr. (I have already posted a recipe for skyr , which may be referred to for one traditional method). If you want to try the real thing, the report mentions that KEA and Bíóbú both make skyr with (modernised) traditional methods. Their products are available from supermarkets.  In addition you can also buy traditional skyr from a couple of farms that participate in the Beint frá Býli movement (Farm Food Direct), and from specialised shops (I'm sure you can buy it from Frú Lauga , for example). I'm planning to read the report in more depth and may post a digest of the findings.
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Roasted langoustines (ofnbakaður humar)

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Mention lobster and the image conjured up in most people's minds tends to be of an American lobster ( Homarus americanus ). Looks yummy, doesn't it? Public domain image downloaded from Pixabay Public domain image downloaded from Wikimedia However, when Icelanders speak of lobster, they tend to mean leturhumar or langoustine ( Nephrops norvegicus ), a smaller cousin of the American lobster that is found in the north Atlantic ocean and parts of the Mediterranean. The westernmost part of its range is around Iceland and it is found as far north as northern Norway and as far south as Portugal. Also known as Norway lobster, Dublin Bay prawn or scampi , it is a delicious crustacean that has many fans. It can be used in many different kinds of dishes, but the most popular uses in Iceland are in soup and roasted, grilled or fried. Often the same langoustines will provide material for two dishes, with most of the flesh being fried/grilled/roasted and the shells being use...
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