Rye-tortilla with veggies and a foggy day

We got the craziest fog the other day and we watched it crawl into the fjord. In fifteen minutes we went from sunny clear sky to a total fog so I couldn´t see the house next a cross the road.

I had spent the day outside baking rye bread as I often do since It can get rather smokey if I do it inside.  Then I made few  tortillas for lunch using the Icelandic flat bread recipe.  If you like the taste of rye this you must try.

Rye tortillas with veggies

The tortillas

• 200 g rye flour
• 100 g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 -3 dl boiling water
• All purpose flour when rolling it out.

Blend all ingredients together, pouring the water in little at a time.  It´s like making any bread dough, or  like tortillas.  Roll it out in thin tortillas and bake on a hot pan, about 1 minute each side.

I use white flour for dusting, while rolling out the dough.  I do the same as if it was Roti or any other flat bred, make golf ball sizes balls and roll them out, bake on a hot pan, each side for 1 minute or so.

The Chili sauce

• 2-3 tablespoons Sweet chili sauce
• 1 cup Mayo

Mix well in a bowl.

The Yogurt sauce

• Ab milk or greek yogurt
• Cucumber
• Red onion
• Salt
• Turmeric
• Fresh oregano or good quality dried one

Dice the red onion and the cucumber. Mix everything well together in a
bowl.

The Veggie Salad

• Red bell pepper
• Yellow bell pepper
• Spring onion
• Carrots
• Garden greens

Dice the peppers and the onion, scred the carrot. Mix.

Serve little of everything on a flatbread. I had some melted cheese as
well.

I put shredded cheese on the hot flatbread so it mmmmmmmmmmmmelted.

Here you find the Icelandic flat bread recipe

First we had a beautiful sunset and a little cloud sneaking in…

Then I placed my camera on a tripod and took a photo with the timer every minute for about 20 minutes

This is what happened…

The first photo was taken at 22:42 and the last one at 23.01 in the evening.

Flat bread sticks and a creamy cannellini dip

We finally got summer in Iceland, 25°c and all.  We spent yesterday out side and on the veranda with the neighbors next door.  When we get together to eat it is always a food heaven.

What we bring magically goes well together always, we know each others cooking style so we have some practice in the match making.

I have so much growing in my back yard, naturally…it´s just the country side.  So many of the flowers and herbs you can use for tea or healing, by making all kinds of  healing creams.

Yellow Bedstraw and Northern Bedstraw

Like I said, the summer finally arrived and we got good days for 4 days in a row, today it´s raining again…oooh well.  Being able to sit outside and enjoy dinner is a rare thing here in Iceland and when we can we do!

Not often I get my picture taken since It´s me taking the pictures all the time…

My neighbor made a really nice onion pie and I made cannellini dip and flat bread.  I ´ll tell you about the onion pie later.

Flat bread

• Pizza dough

Flatten out the dough in a square and brush it with oil.  Put it in a panini grill or out on the BBQ.  Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Cut the bread as desired.

Cannellini dip

• Cannellini beans, boild (or canned)
• A  handful of fresh basil
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• Salt
• Greek yogurt
• Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Put everything in a mixer and blend until creamy.  Serve in a bowl with the flat bread.

This is the easy version of a cannellini dip.  I have also made one in layers, A layer of cannillini beans, salt, pepper, garlic.  A layer of basil pesto made with basil, extra virgin olive oil and pine nuts or almonds if you like.  The last layer is  a layer of roasted red pepper pesto where I roast red peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper and then I puree it in a blender.

Then you layer this up in a bowl, or you could just mix it all together.

 

Grilled Halloumi with ruccola and red onion – Field trip to the forest

We took a walk in the forest yesterday, I was interested in seeing how the mushroom were growing, since we have had a lousy summer sun wise and lots of rain!  The mushroom season in Iceland is usually around mid of July.

They were looking good and so is the weather forecast for this week, finally no rain!

 

We don´t have many big forests in Iceland and there is a joke that goes like this:

What do you do when you get lost in an Icelandic forest?

…You stand up.

The trees in the forest are often rather small.

The forest close to where I live

Hvalfjörður

For all you who are enjoying your warm summer I have a great dish for you.  Halloumi cheese.  It is best grilled, it does not melt.  Next time on the patio I recommend the Halloumi salad, grilled flat bread and a glass of good crispy white wine.  You can grill the cheese and the flat bread on the BBQ.  I used the Panini grill since, like I have mentioned, we have had a crappy weather this summer.  

Grilled Halloumi with ruccola and grilled flat bread

• Halloumi cheese
• Ruccola
• Red onion
• Pizza dough

Slice the cheese, about 1/2 cm thick.  Finely dice the onion.  Put the salad on a plate, arrange the cheese and the onion on top and serve with flat bread.  For the flat bread,

I rolled out the pizza dough in a pita bread size, and grilled t in the panini grill.

Simple and awesome flavor!

Deep fried cod with almost Remoulade

I bought a lot of fresh fish the other day, some of it I put in the freezer but the cod I wanted to cook right a way.

When we lived in Madrid there was an old bar that was serving deep fried salted cod and it was very good.  We washed it down with glasses of red wine, and I say glasses in plural, since the glasses were tiny, but that was the fun thing.  They served you more wine when they saw an empty glass on the house.

It was an old place with old interior, nothing fancy but the atmosphere was great.  It was mostly older local people that came there.

In Spain in many places people throw the napkins on the floor…very Spanish…

I recommend you serve Crianza in small cheep glasses with this dish…
Deep fried cod

For the batter:

• Flour
• Beer
• Salt
• Smokey & Sweet paprika spice

About one cup of flour and one of beer, (so it looks like a pancake batter).  A teaspoon of salt, pepper and paprika.  Mix well.

The Cod:

• Cod
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil for frying

Salt and pepper the cod.  Cover the cod in batter.  Deep fry

It is also awesome to use salted cod if you can get your hands on that.

A minute before serving the cod my husband threw it out that it might be good to have a little sauce with it, maybe a Remoulade .  Since we don´t have anything like that in our fridge I made a sauce.

A cold Almost Remoulade

• 3-4 Pickles
• 1/2White onion
• 3-5 tbsp Sour cream
• 3-5 tbsp Homemade mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Good Dijon like mustard
• 1 tbsp Maple syrup
• Pepper

Put everything in a blender and mix well.  Serve cold

Puffy pancakes and endless runs to the supermarket

I don´t go to supermarkets no more, I am so tired of those big stores full of shit…processed shit. I have a small local, organic store I go to.  They have Icelandic veggies and good stuff from Sicily and from an organic farm in England.

They have a great stone milled flour from Marino.  That is a real flour. I recommend you read the book Cooked by Michael Pollan and especially the chapter about bread.  Don´t buy the cheapest processed flour that has been vitamin added because the have taken all the nutrition out if by too much processing… (READ THAT BOOK! It is good).

I used to go to the supermarket all the time and stock up on canned stuff that usually ended up expired on my shelves. Now I shop fresh stuff only.  Even my spice rack was full of expired spices since I never used them.  Now I don´t buy spices even, just salt, pepper and good oregano.  I use fresh herbs.

I could go on and on about processed food….when you buy canned salsa, vacuum packed tortillas,supermarket roasted chicken and burrito spice blend in a pack …and go home to mix it all together you are NOT cooking from scratch! Enough babbbbling…It is just good to be aware of what you are eating. There is a joke in Iceland now:  It has only rained twice this summer.  First for 23 days and then for 45. As I sit here now this morning, the rain is pouring down.  What else to do on a rainy and windy day but spend it in the kitchen.  I have few things lined up.  For lunch A PIZZA!  I´ve got top quality ingredients for it. I have rhubarb curd I´ve got to do something with.  I went to the fish store yesterday and got all kind of fresh fish, salted cod,  haddock to make the famous Icelandic stew called Plokkfiskur, a Blue Ling that I have not decided what to do with  and a fresh cod for dinner tonight that I will roll up in a batter and deep fry Spanish style.

The rain is at least good for the garden and the flowers…

If you want something nice and easy for brunch this is a super easy and mess free recipe….have a great weekend.

Puffy pancakes

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup good flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 tablespoon butter

Heat the oven to 200°c.  Put in a oven proof dish with the butter. Mix together eggs, milk, flour and salt with an electric mixer.  Take out the oven proofed dish with the now melted butter …WARNING, IT IS HOT 🙂 Pour the pancake mix in the dish on top of the butter. Put back in the oven for about 17 minutes. Serve warm with something sweet or savory, bacon, smoked salmon, fruits, jam…

Tortilla Española, kid friendly

I´ve been browsing through old photos, from my travels since 2002. I traveled a lot with my husband, we have been to about 30 countries together. We have always loved food and we have done lots of exploring the culinary culture of each country we visit.

I am going to pick out some highlights from our travels once in a while, food related moments that are memorable to me.

The first being a restaurant in Malaga, it was up in the neighborhood we lived in. We spent a month in Malaga studying Spanish, it was a fantastic time. That was back in 2002.

Bodegon de Gurpegui

The restaurant I am talking about is called Bodegon de Gurpegui. What was cool about it was the decor and a canary bird that was flying around the restaurant.  The food was good.

OOOOH! Now I want to take the family to Malaga. I love Spain, been all over and Andalusia is fantastic. I recommend it.

Andalusia is known for fish and shellfish, Gazpacho, dry-cured ham and frying food in their delicious olive oil.

BUY GOOD OLIVE OIL. To do so, you need to find a small store specializing in good food products run by people you can trust are importing the good stuff. There is so much scam in the olive oil business. I get my oil from a local organic corner store, an extra virgin olive oil from Sicily.

A classic Spanish dish is the Tortilla Española. If you have kids, this is something they might like.

Tortilla Española

• 6 potatoes
• 1 onion
• 6 eggs
• Olive oil for frying
• Salt and pepper

Cut pealed potatoes in cubes, 1-2 cm thick and thinly slice onion. Heat olive oil in a pan, add potatoes and onion. Turn it around in the pan until soft and brown.  Beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper, add them to the pan.  Cook for about 3 minutes on medium heat.  Turn the omelette around, best way to do that might be by transferring the omelette to a plate and add it back to the pan then with the other side down.

Serve it warm or cold.

We took a trip to Morocco from Andalusia. O MY! The spices you can get there, I must say the food culture in Morocco is very different from Iceland. I am a big fan of Moroccan kitchen.

Morocco