“…the poor man’s dish but is today served in restaurants, we would have never dreamed of it in my childhood.” ~Margrét Halldórsdóttir, a grandmother of seven, left this comment on my Instagram feed
I love the world.
I love traveling the world.
One of the things I love most about traveling the world is getting exposed to new food, new flavors and new culinary traditions. My trip to Iceland last month could have been just about food—and not at all about the beautiful country, the nice people and the wonderful history—and it still would have been worth the trip! As I wrote in a few blogs ago, I loved eating my way through Iceland. The beer wasn’t too shabby either.
My first trip abroad was in January 2001. Beautiful España. I was excited to use my passport for the first time, to visit a country I had dreamed of visiting since childhood, and of course to journal about all of the food and drink that was on my travel list. When packing my suitcase for that trip, I purposely left space so that I could bring back a cookbook. I had decided then, before that first trip across the Atlantic, that whenever I visited a foreign country, I would get a cookbook to bring back with me. It’s become one of my most favorite traveling traditions, and so I was very excited to find a great cook book in Iceland. Not just because it would become a part of that tradition of buying a cookbook, but because it had, what seemed like, a great recipe for plokkfiskur.
I was introduced to plokkfiskur while on a food tour that my friends and I took in Iceland (also mentioned a few blogs ago) and ended up having it once more before we left at the same restaurant visited on the tour. Their version was made in an iron skillet which gave it great texture that I thought made it perfect with the rye bread and butter that came along with it. I vowed that once home I would make it fairly soon because I had also brought back some Icelandic rye bread, as well as a few Icelandic Einstök white ales.
Also used in this new favorite dish of mine would be the Icelandic lava salt that came along with me all the way from the Keflavik airport to this little space I call home here in San Antonio, Texas. If only I could have brought some of that great Smjör butter back with me!
Plokkfiskur. It’s basically a combination of fish, potatoes, onions, butter, salt, pepper, and a béchamel (milk) sauce. It was fun to make, and even better to eat!
A blog in the near future will get more into my #52things this year, and my new recipe a week. The plokkfiskur was last week’s official recipe, and it will definitely be up there for best recipe of the year.
After posting a picture on Instagram, I got a few comments from people in Iceland about this new favorite dish of mine. Ragna Björg Ársælsdóttir commented that “the butter is key for me, this is my kid’s favorite and on special days I finish it off under the grill in the oven with generous amounts of shredded cheese on top!” Oh, Ragna. I am so glad I put a nice heaping amount of leftover plokkfiskur (as well as what’s left of the rye bread) in the freezer for another amazing meal real soon—which will be heated up under the “grill” with generous amounts of shredded cheese.
Oh, how I love the world—and all of the adventures I find in its amazing places, and all I learn from its great people.
Elda Eats XO
#eldaeats #iceland #eatingiceland #plokkfiskur #52things
