Jo's Icelandic Recipes

 

The climate in Iceland is too cold for growing fruit, and those vegetables that do grow here are all originally imports. Bilberries and crowberries are the only native species of berries worth mentioning. Vegetables, such as tomatoes (really a fruit), cucumbers and peppers are grown in hothouses, and potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, cabbages and rhubarb grow readily if provided with the right soil. Some hothouse farmers grow tropical fruit for family consumption, such as figs and bananas, but otherwise we import all our fruit. Therefore there are not really any traditional recipes for fruit, and few for vegetables. But we do like eating them!

 

Kartöflustappa - Mashed potatoes	Brúnaðar kartöflur - Caramelised potatoes
Rabarbarasulta - Rhubarb Jam	Rauðkál - Pickled red cabbage
Ávaxtagrautur - Stewed dried fruit	Rabarbaragrautur - Stewed Rhubarb
Bláberjasúpa - Blueberry soup	Niðursoðnar rauðrófur - Pickled red beets

 

Kartöflustappa - Mashed Potatoes This is served with many courses. I like it best with bjúgu (coarse sausages), stews and goulash, and occasionally with the Sunday roast. It's also good with fried liver sausage. A tasty way to get little kids to eat potatoes!

1 1/2 kg.	potatoes	1/2 l.	milk	1 tblsp.	butter (approx.)
1/2 tsp.	salt	15 g.	sugar (approx.)

Boil the potatoes, peel and mash well. Add some milk and stir well. Continue adding milk until the desired consistency is reached (should be fairly thick, and definitely not runny). Add the butter, sugar and salt to taste. Warm up, but do not boil.

-optional: use a pinch of ground nutmeg as well as salt and sugar.

 

Brúnaðar kartöflur - Caramelised potatoes These are good with any kind of roast meat, especially lamb and pork. I don't like to make them too often, just occasionally.   1 kg.  cooked potatoes (preferably red)  50 g.  butter/margarine  50 g.  sugar  Potatoes should preferably be cold, but it is not necessary. They should be small and even sized. If they are too big, cut into smaller pieces, flush with water and pat dry. Put the sugar on a medium hot frying pan. When it starts to brown, add the butter and stir to mix. Lower temperature and add potatoes. Roll the potatoes around to coat evenly. The caramel covering should be soft. Serve hot, for example with the Sunday roast. Caramelised potatoes are also good with all kinds of pork, especially smoked.

 

Rabarbarasulta - Rhubarb Jam, see also Stewed rhubarb

This is served with all sorts of foods and some people will eat it with anything! It is delicious spread on pancakes, between the layers of a Devil's Cake, on waffles (with cream), with roast lamb, or even with ice-cream. There are two varieties of this jam: dark and light. My mother always makes the thick, dark variety. The light variety is better if you intend to use it in baking or to spread on cakes.

1 kg rhubarb (use the red variety as much as possible, it gives better colour)  800g-1 kg white sugar

Wash the rhubarb with cold water. Remove any traces of the leaves, they are poisonous! Leave the white roots. Chop up the rhubarb, mix up with the sugar and stand aside over night. Put in a big cooking pot and bring to the boil over high temperature. Turn down the heat and cook on low until it is about the thickness of thick porridge. The recipe recommends about 10-20 minutes, but if you want darker, thicker jam, cook it longer. Stir frequently.                 Pour the hot jam into sterilised jars and close immediately. To keep longer, use preservative. Store in a cool, dry place.  -For finer jam, chop finely, and when the mixture boils, remove from the heat, mince, return to the pot and continue cooking as directed.

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