Tips on eating in Iceland Written 082117

I headed to Iceland for an artist residency this past summer for a whole month and then camped along the Ring Road with my boyfriend for a week. I knew Iceland´s tourist influx had doubled since 2016 but wasn´t prepared for the news that the Reykjavík airport had a million people pass through it in July.

I knew tourists had been exhibiting bad behavior, some of it caused by the fact that Iceland doesn´t have an infrastructure for this amount of people coming in, and a nature tax and steep fines for littering are being debated. Who throws a pizza box on a lava field? Seriously, I´m going to some northern territory of Canada next time I need to camp and let Iceland have a rest. All regular cultural, artistic, and educational efforts in Iceland are battling with and losing space to tourism. If you´re already going, here are some ideas for how to shop for food and minimize any negative effects your presence may have on Iceland.

1. Buy from Icelandic groceries. This article by Foodie Baker saved our life. As did a kilo of Whole Earth peanut butter from Krónan, a grocery store slightly more expensive than Bónus but also very comparable to prices at home, probably even less expensive. Krónan has a lot of special foods for people with allergies. (Why would you shop at Costco when they are eating into Icelandic profits?)

2. Buy from local fisheries, mutton jerky makers, dry fish and cod. Smoked fish, mutton jerky and dried fish are all items that keep without refrigeration for at least a day or two which is great for camping or sightseeing. Here´s a favorite smoker of trout in the Golden Circle, Reykhúsið Útey. To get to this smokery, start in Laugarvatn, head south on 37 (on the circle road or roundabout intersection, follow the sign toward Selfoss). You´ll see a sign for Útey 500 meters further down the road...don´t forget that means almost 1500 feet or half a kilometer...turn left. 

3. Enjoy local restaurants. If you´re broke, it´s fine to share a soup and have fries. A lot of restaurants give you free bread and butter with the soups. I found it so fascinating in Reykjavík to see people in fancy cars (locals) eating Dominoes, which is at least 25 or 30 per pie.

4. Picnic areas...the humor of seeing a picnic table on a sign and showing up to a gravel circle with no table and no trash can! It´s a great way to make sure tourists take their garbage with them and don´t litter. If there is a table, take the opportunity to chat with people from either Iceland or some other travelers. Or learn how to balance food on your knees as you sit partway out of your car or attempt to sit on a rock without touching bird poop.

5. A closet with a heart on it...this sign means there will be a port o potty and may be a bit new on the N1 route, but how glad we were to take advantage of this whenever we saw it so we wouldn´t have to do anything drastic. You also might just take some ziplocks with you in case of a real emergency. 

6. Pack a garbage bag. I mean, it´s that easy.

Keto Pizza from Quitters Lose on YouTube

 INGREDIENTS:

3/4 to 1 Cup Almond Flour (90g) (replace little with coconut flour for more crisp) 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese 1 Egg 3 tbsp Cream Cheese 1 tsp Italian Seasoning (optional) 1/2 tsp Baking powder 1/2 tsp Salt DIRECTIONS: 1. Place dry ingredients together in a bowl (almond flour, mozzarella cheese, seasoning). 2. Microwave dry mix for 32 seconds just to soften the cheese. 3. Lightly mix the egg and room temperature cream cheese together. Cream cheese chunks are ok. 4. Mix both dry and wet ingredients together to form a dough ball. 5. On parchment paper apply a thin layer of olive oil big about 12 inches in diameter and place your dough ball on it. 6. Place another sheet of parchment paper (or heavy freezer paper for wrinkle-free rolling pin action), and press down with your hand on the dough before using the rolling pin to get it started. Lightly press with a rolling pin to spread the dough. 7. If you want a nice round shape, use a frying pan lid to shape it 8. Remove the top sheet of paper and place the dough into the oven at 390º F for 10 minutes. Keep in mind we don't want to fully cook the crust because we still need to add the sauce and toppings. 9. Remove from oven and add sauce, cheese, and toppings.

Pear Pie

3 perfectly ripe pears, peeled and sliced thinly 

3 eggs, beaten with a splash of oat milk

candied ginger

prunes

2-3 pats of butter

pie crust

pie plate/8 by 8 inch baking dish

*

Put one pie crust into a plate and bake 7 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove from oven. While it's cooling, keep oven on.

Cover 3-6 prunes with plastic and smash very thinly with a can, lay over bottom of pie crust.

Layer in slices of pear as tightly as possible. Instead of fanning them out so the pie is more of a tart, pack them in, thin end of the wedges pointed down at the crust.

Put small pieces of candied ginger between the pear slices.

Gently pour the egg and milk custard between the slices.

Bake at 350 until bubbly and golden 30-45 minutes (depends on...a lot of things).

Enjoy!

Vegan Cabbage Rolls, Easy!

This is adapted from Jenny Jones' recipe for Cabbage Rolls. I made them without a few of the ingredients (thanks coronavirus) and they still turned out delicious! She has a youtube of herself making this recipe, a great help if you're not sure how to trim the stems or roll the leaves.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Get out a glass 9 by 13 pan.

Make sure you have foil or a way to tightly seal the pan while it's baking.

Ingredients:

1 can crushed tomato puree
1/2 veggie boullion cube
1 head of cabbage, cored
3/4 cup jasmine/basmati rice
1 can lentils
2 carrots
sage
oregano/basil
one clove minced raw garlic (the garlic had started to go bad...but this one still good clove made the house smell great nevertheless)
salt
pepper

(we didn't have mushrooms, parsley, or onion...some other day)

Put entire head of cabbage in Dutch oven of boiling salted water and let simmer for 10 minutes. (The head of cabbage was so huge, I just let it in the water for 5-7 minutes, peeled the outer leaves off, and let them boil without the rest of the huge head of cabbage for another 3-5 minutes...I'm saving the rest of the head of cabbage for another batch in a few days...only one glass pan).

Pour one cup tomato puree into 2 cup measuring cup. Add half a cup water and half a vegetable broth bouillon cube, crumbled.

In a bowl, put two very thinly sliced carrots, 3/4 cup uncooked jasmine rice, lentils and spices. Mix.

Let cabbage cool in a colander. Peel off outer leaves carefully so as not to tear them. Flip over and cut the thick part of the stem with a sharp knife so that the stem part that sticks up and is bumpy has been shaved away.

Mix up the tomato sauce and put about half a cup in the bottom of the pan and spread it out a little.

Put 2 T (heaping) of the mix into the center of a cabbage leaf and fold over, just like an egg roll, but don't seal it.

Put in glass pan seam side down.

Tuck the rolls into the pan until the pan is fill. We ran out of mix so we put already cooked rice in two cabbage rolls and they were fine.

Mixing the tomato sauce carefully, pour it over the finished rolls. Sprinkle/distribute the minced garlic on top of them all.

Put little thin pats of (unsalted or salted) butter/Earth Balance on each roll.

Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes. Uncover and add some more of the sauce, then let bake 20 more minutes.

I think, honestly, next time I will put more sauce in the bottom of the pan, pour it over the rolls, and *not* pour more sauce on after 50 minutes...I want to see what happens if I allow the tops of the cabbage rolls to be uncovered during the last 20 minutes so that the butter can make the tops of the rolls golden and brown mmm--it started to happen...

Serve with beet salad, or borscht, or whatnot. Jenny Jones browns the leftover rolls in butter and that is amazing!!

Green Potato Pizza

First off, make sure you do not use potatoes that are green under the skin. That is actually a dangerous mold. Don't eat that.

You will need:

To preheat oven to 425 (or whatever you cook your pizza at)

pizza dough
pesto
a potato peeled and very thinly sliced (Yukon Gold is best) (one fills a 9 x 13 pan)
olive oil or butter
herbs ("Italian seasoning" is fine)
mozzerella

I think olives or sardines would be pretty good on this, or even sauteed leek or fennel, but you do you!

Make the dough. Let it rise. Etc.

Line a pan with dough. Let it be kinda thick but not pan pan thick.

Cook for 7 minutes at 425.

Take out and put a layer of pesto on (I probably used 3 T on the whole thing).

Tile one layer of potatoes, really thinly on there. I've seen Roman pizza where the potato is like overlapping like a deck of cards but I didn't do it that thick on mine.
Drizzle with veggie oil or olive oil (I actually didn't use that cos it smokes at too low a temperature)...butter might work, but idk.
Salt
Pepper
Herbs to taste

This is why poets don't write cook books. Soooo subjective.

Turn oven to broil and put the pizza pan under the broiler (like 3 inches away)
for 3-5 minutes. Watch it carefully until the potatoes look golden around the edges and bendy.

Take out from under the broiler. Sprinkle on mozzarella. You know. Enough mozzarella.

Put oven back on 425 and cook for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool for 7-10 minutes because you don't want to burn your mouth.

Mmm!!!

banana oatmeal cookies, gluten free

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use non-stick pan or lightly grease baking sheet.

You can multiply this recipe pretty easily--I usually double it and make a dozen cookies with the batter.

Mix together

1 mashed banana
1 C oats + a little more if batter seems too soft
handful of blueberries (optional)
handful of walnuts or whatever you feel like (optional)
1/4 C Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread mix (optional)

Let the batter rest for five minutes so the oats absorb the moisture from the bananas.

Drop in 2T heaps and pat down with clean fingers :-)

Bake 12 minutes at 350.

Take out and let stand 2-3 minutes then move to cooling rack.

Mmm! A good snack for at work--really tides you over.

Baguette Bread Pudding/Pain Perdu

My mom was born in France and I always heard her refer to French toast as pain perdu. And she made it for us too. But then I saw that pain perdu is a Louisiana dish made with baguette and custard and a whiskey sauce, I think. Not sure which came first. Anyway, we got baguettes at Panera that neither of us can eat (she can't eat things that are hard and I don't eat gluten stuff).

Here's a recipe that worked out to use the two baguettes and soften them up.

10 inches of a baguette, pulled into little pieces (2.5-3 C bread cubes)
2 eggs
1 cup almond milk
1 cup half and half
1/3 C sugar
3 T honey
1 t cinnamon
2 T butter
half a cup of blueberries or raisins (ugh raisins)

Get a glass loaf pan and heat the oven to 350. When oven is hot, put in glass pan with the two T butter and wait five minutes until the butter is melted.

While the pan is heating in the oven, whisk two eggs together with the milks (as long as it's 2 C milk, I don't think it matters what you use and cream is sooo heavy). Add the sugar and the honey. Whisk well until the sugar is not longer settled at the bottom of the bowl. Add cinnamon.

Put in the bread and let it soak for a minute until it's not all floating around on the top of the custard.

Take pan out of oven and swirl butter around the bottom of the pan, taking care that the butter reaches and covers the corners. Pour bread and egg mixture into hot pan. Stuff the blueberries evenly into the bread mixture (if you're like that...otherwise just throw them in the batter).