Nice, right outta the ice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/02/2002 (8718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cultural-mosaic experts, take note: Vinarterta may be the poster child of Icelandic food, but it’s not the only Icelandic dish worth celebrating.

And Islendingadagurinn may be well-known, but it’s only one of several festivals celebrated by the province’s strong Icelandic community.

Just last Saturday, about 200 Winnipeggers took part in Thorrablt festivities, a winter feast which emphasizes traditional Icelandic food, drink, singing and dancing.

At the Winnipeg celebration, organized by the Icelandic Canadian Fron, the menu included Hakari, a fermented shark served with Brennivin (Icelandic schnapps), Rullupylsa (rolled spiced lamb), Icelandic brown bread with mysuost (whey), Hangikjot (smoked lamb and beans), pickled herring and flatbread, vinarterta and skyr with berries.

Today, according to Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns, author of The Culinary Saga of New Iceland — Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg, some of the traditional foods associated with Thorrablt are not served as widely as they once were.

“I think items like blood sausage and headcheese have been replaced with other more popular foods,” said the Gimli-born Olafson-Jenkyns.

If anyone knows the ins and outs of Icelandic food, it’s Olafson-Jenkyns.

She spent eight years working on her collection of traditional Icelandic recipes, gleaning treasures from First Lutheran Church cookbooks dating back to the 1930s and New Icelandic settlement newspapers 1877-79 and circa 1915 to add to her own recipes and contributions from friends and relatives.

What began as a desire to pass a collection of favourite Icelandic recipes on to her children and nieces snowballed into a chronicle of the history of Icelanders who immigrated to the Interlake in 1875, North American Icelandic immigration, photographs, vignettes about Icelandic customs and foods, a glossary of Lake Winnipeg fish and an accounting of the boats that serviced the New Icelanders on Lake Winnipeg.

“I just wanted to preserve the history of our heritage. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and experimenting with foods, and feel traditional recipes are an important piece of our history,” recounted Olafson-Jenkyns. “I wondered what would happen to all this stuff if it wasn’t recorded.”

Her 235-page cookbook provides a boatful of Icelandic specialties, including Lake Winnipeg fish soups, smoked goldeye pate and pickerel dishes, meat, bean and lamb soups, rolled spiced lamb, liver sausage, red cabbage, potatoes and green peas in white sauce, pickled beets, rhubarb compote, skyr, whey cheese, brown bread, leaf bread, flat bread, ponnukokur, rice pancakes, vinarterta, calla lily cake, and half moon cookies.

And in a novel twist, Olafson-Jenkyns enlisted individual Icelandic Canadians to test one another’s traditional recipes, and included tester’s comments following each recipe.

“I knew almost all of the testers through the Gimli connection,” she explained. “It was great to talk to and be in touch with all of the people, and share our love of Icelandic foods.”

Olafson-Jenkyns — who attended high school and university in Winnipeg– worked as a caterer and interior decorator and painter and has been pleasantly surprised by the widespread interest in her first, self-published cookbook.

“I was aware of the number of Icelandic Canadians in Manitoba and across the country, but it’s amazing how many Icelandic clubs exist around the U.S.,” said Olafson-Jenkyns, now residing in Dundas, Ont.

In fact, she spent last week in Salt Lake City at Icelandic House, serving samples of Icelandic food and selling her cookbook to eager Icelanders and North American descendants of Icelanders.

What characterizes Icelandic food is its straightforwardness, she said.

“It’s simple food, with very little seasoning, but when it’s well-prepared, the ingredients shine through and there’s no waste,” Olafson-Jenkyns noted, adding fish and ponnukokur (thin pancakes) are the most popular Icelandic foods.

When Icelanders immigrated to North America in the late 1800s, their recipes changed according to new cooking methods (stoves and ovens) and ingredients.

Local fish took centre stage, while the availability of grains and yeast made Icelandic brown bread more popular than the traditional flatbread.

Other local ingredients such as game, produce, berries also turned up in Icelandic cuisine.

“When the Icelanders came over, they had traditions like vinarterta that got frozen in time. They wanted to maintain bonds with their homeland and made vinarterta super important,” she explained.

“Back in Iceland, vinarterta fell by the wayside in terms of popularity, while it remains the number one Icelandic cake over here.”

Pickerel Chowder

6 slices bacon

1 garlic clove, minced

1 celery stock, chopped

1/4 to 1/2 cup (50 to 125 mL) each of red and green bell peppers, chopped

1 medium sized onion, diced

2 cups (500 mL) potatoes, diced

1 cup (250 mL) mushrooms, sliced

2 to 3 tablespoons (15 to 25 mL) flour

1/2 cup (125 mL) dry white wine

1 1/2 to 2 cups (375 to 500 mL) fish stock, or to cover

1 1/2 to 2 lb (750 g to 1 kg) pickerel fillets, cut in chunks or pickerel cheeks

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) dried thyme, crumbled

1 can kernel corn, drained, optional

1 cup (250 mL) heavy cream

1 1/2 to 2 cups (375 to 500 mL) milk, or to cover

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Sauté bacon in a large soup pot (do not allow the pot bottom to become too browned.)

Add the garlic, celery, peppers, onion, potatoes and mushrooms. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and saut, tossing for about 15 minutes.

Add the wine and the fish stock to cover and simmer until the potatoes are just barely tender.

Add the pickerel and herbs. Cover and steam until the fish is opaque, about 8 minutes.

Add the corn, cream and milk to cover. Simmer on low heat, below boiling, until the flavours have blended, about 30 minutes. Season to taste.

Tip: Prepare a day ahead. Remove from heat after adding corn, cream and milk. Next day, simmer gently, until the flavours have blended and the chowder is hot.

Serves 6 to 8.

Source: The Culinary Saga of New Iceland — Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg by Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (Coastline Publishing, 2001.)

Taste-tester notes: I used vegetable stock in place of fish stock, and 2 cups/500 mL light cream, 1 cup/250 mL milk. This is a very tasty chowder. Be sure to season generously with salt and pepper. It was even better the day after it was prepared.

Gudny Stefanson’s (Lorna’s Amma) Brown Bread

2 cups (500 mL) skim milk

4 tablespoons (60 mL) shortening

1/2 cup (125 mL) sugar

1/4 cup (50 mL) molasses

1 heaping tablespoon (15 mL) salt

2 tablespoons (25 mL) or 2 packages traditional yeast

3/4 cup (175 mL) warm water

2 teaspoons (10 mL) sugar

4 cups (1 L) white flour

4 cups (1 L) graham or whole wheat flour

Scald milk. Add shortening, sugar, molasses and salt; stir together. Cool to lukewarm.

Add yeast to 3/4 cup (175 mL) warm water with 2 teaspoons (10 mL) sugar. Let set for 10 minutes. Add to lukewarm mixture.

Put 4 cups (1 L) white flour in a large bowl and add liquid all at once. Beat until smooth. Add graham flour 1 cup/250 mL at a time, kneading well until the dough is easy to handle.

Clean bowl; grease and place dough back into the bowl turning over so top is greased lightly. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.

Punch down and shape into 3 small or 2 large loaves. Let rise until nearly double in bulk.

Place in 400F (200C) oven; then reduce heat to 325 F (160 C). Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

Source: The Culinary Saga of New Iceland — Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg by Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (Coastline Publishing, 2001.)

Taste-tester notes: What a delicious brown bread from Lorna Tergesen’s amma (grandma)! And the aroma of it baking was wonderful. I used whole wheat flour in place of graham flour and had great results.

Thora Orr’s Vinarterta

Layers:

1 cup (250 mL) soft butter

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons (25 mL) light cream

1 teaspoon (5 mL) almond extract

4 cups (1 L) sifted flour

1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cardamom seeds

1/2 cup (125 mL) ground almonds

Filling:

2 pounds (1 kg) prunes

1 cup (250 mL) sugar

2 teaspoons (10 mL) cinnamon

1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla

Rich Butter Icing:

6 tablespoons (90 mL) soft butter

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) sifted icing sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup (125 mL) ground almonds

1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) almond extract

Layers:

Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar gradually, beating thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Mix in cream and almond extract.

Sift dry ingredients together. Mix into creamed mixture. Add ground almonds. Blend well.

Turn onto unfloured pastry board and knead gently 10 to 15 times to smooth up. Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes.

Divide dough into 6 equal parts. Pat 1 part into 9-inch (22-cm) round layer cake pan. Bake 2 at a time at 350F (180C) for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden. Turn out on rack to cool. Continue with remaining dough.

Filling:

Cover prunes with boiling water in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain, saving 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the cooking water.

When cool, pit if necessary and put through a food chopper (fine.)

Return to saucepan with the reserved water, sugar and cinnamon. Cook gently until just thick enough to spread. Add vanilla. Cool.

Rich Butter Icing:

Cream butter and sugar well. Add egg yolk and beat until fluffy.

Stir in almonds and almond extract. Add a little more icing sugar if necessary to spread.

To assemble:

Lay one layer on a flat serving plate. Spread a smooth, even layer of the prune puree (about 1/8 inch thick.) Top with another layer, prune filling, and continue until you have 6 layers leaving the top layer plain.

Wrap and allow to ripen at room temperature for a few days before icing.

Source: The Culinary Saga of New Iceland — Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg by Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (Coastline Publishing, 2001.)

Taste-tester notes: I found it necessary to flour the pastry board when rolling out each layer (it does not state to roll out the layers, but that is the method of making torte layers.) As recommended by Olafson-Jenkyns’ tester, I cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup (125 mL) in the prune filling (it’s definitely sweet enough.) I used pitted prunes, and mashed the prunes easily with a potato masher (rather than a food chopper.) This is a delicious vinarterta recipe and the ground almonds and almond extract adds to its flavour. The icing was a big hit, too.