Egg salad

What is the best food you´ve made or tasted this year?  Already almost two months done of 2013 and I feel like it was early January yesterday.  I´ve been keeping busy for sure and I´ve been cooking a lot and everything from scratch.   My favorite meal of 2013 so far are Chinese Dumplings I made the other day.  I will tell you all about it next time.

I was gonna slice some veggies to serve with bread.  Then I decided to cut it very small and throw it in a egg salad.  It was very fresh and tasty, perfect with my homemade sourdough bread.

Egg salad 

• Homemade mayo or sour cream, 3-5 tablespoons
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1-2 spring onions
• 1/3 cucumber
• Salt and pepper

Cut the eggs and dice all the veggies very fine.  Mix everything together with the homemade mayo or sour cream.  Season with salt and pepper, about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 of pepper.

It got cold last week but the dogs at the farm next door didn´t mind it and were playing in the snow.  Thankfully this week it´s a bit warmer.

Chili pepper and ethical chocolate

Valentine´s day tomorrow, that is rather new for people in Iceland to celebrate that day.  I don´t.  I am such a party pooper, I just think about the marketing around all this.  I am guessing many will buy chocolate for their sweethearts.  If ever, this is the day to splurge on a good chocolate, then I mean ethical good.  Here is a good article about ethical chocolate.  Read it before you go to the store to buy some chocolate.

The dry spices you get in the store are so tasteless, I get more taste from chewing on a newspaper.  We have a really good one, grown here in Iceland, it´s hot, but not too hot.  I dry it and put it in a mortel and work it until it becomes powder.

I made an Indian food the other day using only fresh garlic, ginger and my chili pepper and a little bit of turmeric.  IT was so good and good taste and little bit spicy.

Cream Puff Day

Today was a Cream Puff day in Iceland.  We call it Bolludagur.  I am not a fan of Cream Puffs, so I didt´t make them this year, I did last year and they turned out really nice.  This recipe is solid.  My mom and mother in law have been making them for like 105 years…. ok maybe 45 years.

We cut them in half and stuff them with cream and jam, and on top we have melted chocolate.

Cream Puffs

• 125 g butter
• 2,5 dl water
• 125 g flour
• 3-4 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Boil together water and butter.  (add sugar and salt if you will)  Add flour to the pot and stir until smooth.  Some keep the pot on the stove while stirring the flour to the melted butter, others not.

Put the dough in a Kitchen Aid. (or similar stand mixer)

Add the eggs, one at a time.

The dough should not be too thin.

REMEMBER…IMPORTANT!

Never open the oven while the cream puffs are in there

Keep a good distance between the cream puffs.

Use rather less eggs than too many, even only a half an egg too much can ruin a recipe.

 

If you want to traditional Icelandic food this is one of it…

 

When is summer coming?