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.ms.is/Vorur/Markfaedi-og-baetiefnavorur/AB-vorur/204/default.aspx or súrmilk (a type of yogurt made from skimmed milk).In the last century, cold porridge was often mixed with skyr (buttermilk) and known as hræringur around the country.Many of the people who were sent off into the countryside and had parched mouths at the end of their long journeys have mixed memories of this kind of porridge, which was served with blood pudding.Nowadays, dates, apples and dried apricots are sometimes mixed into the porridge.One can also put green leaves into the porridge to give it a green colour, such as finely chopped lemongrass, boiled Icelandic moss, yarrow, lady’s mantle and white dryas.This would make it summer porridge.RED WINE (ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS)Some of the characters in the story have a keen fondness for alcohol, although this applies more to the secondary characters than the narrator.Examples of excessive drinking are to be found in various parts of the novel, even from an expectant mother.There are also various references to light wine, liqueurs or stronger spirits such as cognac, but equally often, if not more often, the characters drink water or fresh milk.The journey begins with two bottles of water, for example, and there is one occurrence of three to four glasses of milk being downed by a child in the space of a paragraph.Even though moderate drinking can occasionally help us escape the burdens of existence, it is by no means an established pattern in the narrator’s life nor a lifestyle, but rather behaviour that is strictly dictated by narrative necessity.In fact, it would be more accurate to talk about regular exceptions.It may be of symbolic significance that the narrator does not dwell on the potential consequences of inebriation; the fulcrum of the plot lies elsewhere.If one does go too far, however, there are a number of day-after remedies that can be suggested.I will mention only one that remains infallible: a tasty miso soup.HOME-BREWED CROWBERRY SCHNAPPS IN A JARCrowberries (you can also use redcurrant, blackcurrant or various other berries), sugar, pure vodka.Take a large, clean 2-litre jar with a lid and fill half of it with berries.Fill a quarter of the jar with sugar.Fill the remaining quarter of the jar with pure vodka, right up to the brim.Fasten the lid on the jar and place it somewhere safe out of the reach of children, but not under a bed or somewhere else where the jar may be forgotten.Turn the jar over once a day for a period of two months.If you prepare the jar in mid-October, the schnapps will be ready just before Christmas.As soon as the winter solstice dawns, it is ideal to sit out on the deck, well dressed, and to drink two to three shots of this beverage with the celestial vault in full view.EXTREMELY THICK RICE PUDDING WITH CINNAMON SUGAR2–3 cups of rice, 2 cups of cold water, 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ cup of raisins, 1½ litres of milk, cinnamon.There are a number of rice pudding variants of varying thickness.Thoroughly rinse the rice in cold water.Different types of rice can be used, everything from organic brown rice to the sticky River Rice that was used for a long time.Put 2–3 cups of rice in a pot and pour 1½ cups of cold water over it.Salt.Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook it until almost all of the water has evaporated, but without allowing the rice to stick together, i.e.about 5 minutes.Allow the child to sprinkle it with raisins.Pour the milk into the pot, bit by bit, and bring to the boil again.Do not place the lid on the pot while the rice is cooking or it will boil over.Boil the rice at low heat until the grains are soft.Turn off the heat and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes, while the milk seeps into the rice.Help the child to mix the cinnamon and sugar in the bowl.Eat with cold milk and cinnamon.It is nice to eat the rice pudding with slices of liver pudding.SESAME SEED BREAD ROLLS FROM THE BAKERYSesame seed bread rolls rapidly fell out of fashion because of the white flour they are made with, but they are regaining popularity again, particularly on weekends.They are ideal for a man and a woman after their second night.The easiest thing to do by far is to buy sesame seed bread rolls in the bakery.They can vary greatly from one bakery to the next.In some places they can be quite dense and soft, whereas in others they have a crispy crust and airy interior, completely empty in fact.FISH BALLS WITH BOILED POTATOES AND BUTTERBuy 1 kilo of fresh, fat haddock.Check out the origins of the fish and at least make sure that it was not fished in Fossvogur, but rather in the north or west of the country.Tuesday is normally fish ball day.Ask your fishmonger to personally skin and fillet your selected haddock from the north or west.You can also ask him to mince the fish to save you the trouble—specify whether it is for a woman and a child or for a man, woman, child and mother-in-law—and decide at the same time whether, and if so how many, onions should go into the mincer.It is best to get to the fishmongers before the crowds get in, i.e.before five-thirty.That will also give you time to talk about other things, and, for example, discuss the theoretical differences between the head and tail of the fish and other topics, such as catch quota issues and the pricing of marine products.It is four-thirty and, for the third time, the old woman in front of me in the queue tells the fishmonger, who is cutting some fish for her, in a low voice to take another three centimetres off the tail, after which, in an almost inaudible whisper, she confesses: “Because it’s just me at home.” Although it can be interesting to ponder who buys what and for how many people, I give very little away about my family status.I confess nothing to the fishmonger and am saved by the child, since I can say I’m buying for two.That way the fishmonger can imagine I’m happily married and that he’s selling minced fish to a very enamoured couple.Then I can give the boy the leftovers of the fish balls the next day, while I have tea and toast with tomatoes.Sometimes your personal fishmonger will give you a good recipe for gellur or cod tongues.Although I’ve never really been able to relate to those fleshy triangular muscles behind the cod’s chin and under its tongue, when a man passes on a recipe to a woman it creates a certain kind of bond, intimacy even.If I were to divulge too much information and were to reveal, for example, that there were two adults in the house or that my husband is from the west of the country where those cod tongues come from, or that he prefers haddock fried in breadcrumbs or something along those lines, because that was what his mother used to cook for him (the kind of thing women say sometimes), then the fishmonger would probably keep his cod tongue recipe to himself.In the two minutes that he is away operating the mincing machine, I swiftly glance at the rye bread, dry fish, lamb dripping and love balls on display on the glass counter.Seeing my reflection in the glass I brush my bangs aside.1 kilo of minced haddock with or without onion, 4 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon of potato flour (optional), 1 tablespoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 2 eggs, 100 millilitres of milk, ½ onion and/or chives.Mix the minced fish, flour, potato flour and seasoning, also mixing in the eggs and then the milk.Add in the chopped chives as well, if you want.Chives grow in the garden or in a pot on the balcony from April to November.You can also use parsley that will grow all year round in a pot on the kitchen window sill.Heat some olive oil and butter in a pan.Mould the fish balls with the help of a spoon until they assume the shape of little white mice and then fry them in the pan.Quickly remove two half-fried fish balls and place them on a saucer so that you can eat them with Japanese soy sauce, while you finish frying the other balls [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]