Butterflies in November

FORTY-SEVEN

COOKING RECIPES AND ONE KNITTING RECIPE

A WORD OF CAUTION

The following are forty-seven recipes or descriptions of dishes/beverages and one knitting recipe that are connected to the narrative of Butterflies in November. The recipes more or less follow the same order in which they appear in the book. Some of them may make excellent meals, but it should be noted, however, that certain of these dishes may work better on the page than on a plate. Readers are warned that these recipes are, to some extent, fictitious and there is therefore always the risk that they may not be accurate down to the last gram or millilitre. The story also includes references to food that did not go down particularly well with the characters or to dishes that simply failed. No words can be categorical enough to exclude any possibility of misinterpretation and it is therefore up to the reader to find his or her own way. In this context, it is barely worth mentioning that the stuffing of the goose was made up of more than just the words on the page. Similarly, some of the descriptions of the dishes may be too elusive to be interpreted with absolute precision or for any usable recipe to be drawn from them. An example of this is “Not another of those spicy city recipes with beans” (Chapter Thirty-five).

Most of the recipes are conceived for one woman and a child.

The dishes are normally easy to make, and intended to enable the woman to spend as much time as possible with the child. The child can also lend a hand in the cooking. The portions are more often than not designed to leave ample leftovers. In the event of any doubts regarding the recipes or questions on these dishes, the reader is welcome to contact the narrator. It should be pointed out, however, that the narrator is not always responsible for the recipe herself. Examples of this include the snow buntings grilled by foreigners in the highlands and whale steaks. There are many more recipes to be found in the story than those listed here and the narrator will be happy to provide them upon request (e.g. lemon chicken with olives).

It is impossible to determine the exact source of these recipes; some may even have come straight out of the narrator’s neighbour’s cook book.

Two of the recipes are designed for funeral receptions, others are conceived for a man and a woman. When a woman cooks for a man or a man for a woman, they generally put more effort into it. In these cases the recipes are also more elaborate. The amount of leftovers will be determined by the state of development of their relationship. FRIED FISH IN BREADCRUMBS AND ONIONS

Fried haddock in breadcrumbs and onions is a classic Monday dish. However, fish is often fresher in shops on a Tuesday. Naturally, there are a number of alternatives to the traditional halibut and a welcome variation can be pan-fried catfish or brown trout. Catfish is related to wolf-fish but is a darker, savoury fish that reminds some of monkfish. Catfish never fails to catch the eye as it lies on display on the fishmonger’s iced steel tray. As most people know, it has beautiful leopard skin which has been used in, among other things, the design of handbags and skirts. Instead of the famous Paxo Golden Crumb pack, you can use home-made breadcrumbs, which are thicker and give the fish a crispier crust. That is because the fish itself does not touch the pan and the fat goes into the breadcrumbs. Fry the onion in a dab of butter in the pan and a splash of olive oil. Remove the onion from the pan when it turns golden brown. Fry both sides of the wolf-fish fillet for a few minutes. The fish should be fried over high heat in a mixture of olive oil and butter until it acquires the colour of a sunny golden shore. Season. Serve with white or barley rice and fresh green salad with tomatoes and cucumber. Make a dressing for the salad with honey, Dijon mustard and olive oil. It is good to mix brown and white rice. Brown rice is a lot slower to cook than normal rice, however, and normally needs to boil for an hour. THICK WILD GAME SAUCE (WITH GOOSE)

Goose broth, ½ litre of water, salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon of redcurrant jelly, cream. Pour the goose broth into a dripping-pan that will siphon the liquefied fat. Season the sauce according to taste. Since the sauce has to be thick enough to conceal the tread marks of the car tires left on the run-over bird, it is probably best to use old-fashioned flour to thicken it. Mix a tablespoon of flour with several tablespoons of water and blend it into the broth. Add one tablespoon of redcurrant jelly into the sauce, whip the cream and mix it with the rest before the sauce is presented. The sauce should be the last dish placed on the dining table adorned with candles. TEA AND BREAD WITH SMOKED SALMON

Tea and bread with smoked salmon is the ideal afternoon snack when someone pops in to see you on the way home from work, for example. Trout is also a perfectly acceptable alternative. Many types of trout can be used: lightly smoked, dung-smoked, birch-smoked, hot-smoked. Many trout breeders have started to do their own smoking at home and you can therefore choose fish from various parts of the country. To add variety, trim some cress over the smoked fish, since cress can be grown in soil or wet cotton on the kitchen window sill all year round. TEA

Tea can never be praised enough as an afternoon refreshment. All research indicates that green tea is the healthiest beverage one can drink. In some places in the Far East one can spend the whole day in tea houses, while a waiter wanders between guests with a pot of boiling water balanced on a bamboo shoot over his shoulder. People who have lived in Britain generally like to have cream biscuits with a yellow or pink filling with their afternoon tea. In Iceland one can use Frón kremkex, which have a white cream inside. For anyone suffering from insomnia, herbal tea with two to three slices of toast would be preferable.

Green tea: 2 tablespoons of tea leaves, 1 litre of boiled water. The teapot is heated by rinsing its interior with boiling water. Place the tea leaves in the pot and pour boiling water over them. Steep for 4 minutes. Pour into cups through a tea-strainer.

Herbal tea: August is the best month for gathering herbs. Pick thyme, white dryas, cinquefoil, mint leaves, yarrow and lady’s mantle. Dry the herbs. It is a good idea to pre-dry them inside a clean pillow case before placing them on a tray to fully dry them. Boil 1 litre of water in a pot, remove it from the heat and put a fistful of the dried herbs into it (2 tablespoons if the herbs have been finely chopped). Close the lid and allow to brew for 15 minutes. Herbal tea can be reheated several times but not reboiled. It is advisable to read up on the healing properties of the various herbs (e.g. their effect on sore throats, stomach problems and ailing hearts) and experiment with dosages. SPINACH LASAGNE

Lasagne is generally on the table on Wednesdays. The recipes on the Barilla packet are fairly easy to follow in themselves. Finding the right size of baking pan can be tricky, though. The following is a vegetarian alternative to the traditional minced meat recipe. Pour the oil from a packet of feta cheese into the pan. Fill the pan with spinach and maybe onion and mushrooms, if there happen to be some in the fridge and it tickles your fancy. Cover abundantly with cream and allow to simmer until the spinach leaves have softened. Arrange a base layer of pasta sheets at the bottom of a baking pan and then pour the spinach mix over it, followed by bits of feta cheese. Then repeat this, layer after layer, according to the size of the baking pan and the number of people eating. Finally, sprinkle grated mozzarella over the top layer. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Eat with good bread and green salad. This is a very nourishing and relatively simple dish which most people can do, and can be just as appealing to the young as the old. WILD GOOSE WITH TRIMMINGS AND A RICH, THICK WILD GAME SAUCE

Wild goose can be cooked in a variety of ways with a vast choice of trimmings. The chef cannot always choose the size of the goose, as the case of the run-over goose clearly demonstrates, but ideally the goose should be neither too big nor too fat. It should preferably be rather young, and young geese are generally recognizable from the reddish-pink colour of their feet and beaks, as well as the softness of their bills. The average goose weighs between three and six kilos and feeds between five and ten people. Since part of the goose’s fat melts away during cooking, it diminishes by a corresponding volume. This recipe is intended for one man and one woman and one can therefore expect ample leftovers. It is best to leave the goose hanging outside for several days after it has been shot or killed by other means. Collect the goose from your balcony and pluck it without tearing its flesh. Once the goose’s feathers have been removed, the beige colour of its skin is revealed with an interesting argyle pattern. It is best to skim over the bird with a Primus blowtorch, e.g. out in the garage where the primus is kept, or alternatively by using the flame of a candle. Grab one of the goose’s legs and wings, hold it at a comfortable distance from the flame and then swing it to and fro. When you have finished torching it, cut its neck, wings and legs. Then cut into the bird just above its sternum to scrape out the gizzard and remove the gall, heart and liver. Take the goose’s heart, slice it with a sharp knife, rinse out the blood and put it aside for another occasion. The heart can be both roasted with the bird to sharpen the taste of its juice or can be used as part of the stuffing. Then rinse the goose in cold water and wipe it. Once this has been done, you have to decide how to cook it:

1. Icelandic wild goose with apples and prunes roasted in the old-fashioned way. Wild goose, salt, pepper, apples, prunes, parsley. Massage the washed goose and season it with salt and pepper, both inside and out, before placing it on the draining board and preparing the stuffing. The stuffing is made with apple wedges, soft, pitted prunes and chopped parsley. Shove the stuffing into the goose and close the opening with a skewer or by sewing it. Ensure you also close off other holes the stuffing could leak out of, such as the neck cavity. Then place the goose, breast side up, on a roasting pan and fry it for several minutes at high heat. Pour boiling water over the goose and carry on roasting it at a low temperature for 2–3 hours, depending on the bird’s age and size. The bird can be turned over while it is being roasted, although it is not necessary. It is customary during roasting to wet the bird with its juices at 15-minute intervals to prevent it from shrivelling or burning. The goose should be eaten in good company and with baked potato wedges, home-cooked red cabbage, green peas, carrot purée, apple and walnut salad with crème fraîche, a rich, thick sauce and redcurrant jelly.

2. Boiled goose with potatoes and onion stuffing á la Irish. One goose, salt, pepper. Broth: neck, heart and gizzard of goose, a small onion, a carrot and fresh thyme, parsley, a little celery, 6–7 peppercorns, water. Stuffing: 10 medium-sized potatoes, 7 onions, 6 apples, 50 grams of butter, one tablespoon of chopped parsley, one tablespoon of chopped lemongrass, salt and pepper. Pluck and torch the goose in the same way as Icelandic wild goose. In Ireland there is an old tradition of hanging onto the feathered wings to dust the dark corners of the house. The smaller feathers went into pillows. Start by preparing the stuffing. Boil potatoes in salted water, and then peel and mash them. Chop the onion and brown it in a pan or pot for 5 minutes, without burning it. Add the sliced apples to the onion in the pan and cook them until they soften. Regularly stir the onion and apple mix. Add the mashed potatoes, parsley, lemongrass, salt and pepper and blend them well together. Allow the stuffing to cool before filling the goose. Clean out the innards of the Irish goose in the same way as the Icelandic one. To make the broth, throw the neck, heart and gizzard into a pot with a small onion, one carrot, thyme, parsley, celery and the peppercorns. Drown them in cold water and allow them to simmer at a low heat for 2 hours. The wings can be added if one wants. Season the washed and dried goose with salt and pepper, both inside and out, and insert the stuffing. Rub sea salt into breast exterior. Place the goose in a big roasting pot, slip it into the oven, add water to the pot, place a lid over it and boil at a moderate temperature for 2–3 hours or for as long as it takes to remove all traces of the accident. Lift the lid off the pot 3–4 times during the boiling and spoon off the fat and juice and keep in a jar for another occasion. The fat can be kept for a long time in a jar in the fridge and can be put to a variety of uses, e.g. to pour over potatoes in the oven. In the olden days it was considered beneficial to rub the goose fat into the chests of people with respiratory problems. Goose fat was also used to polish kitchen utensils in Irish homes as well as leather garments. Add the potatoes to the goose and allow them to cook with it for an hour. For the last 30 minutes remove the lid from the pot, and turn up the heat to brown the goose. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Filter the broth, add the cooking juices and fat from the goose, taste and season (dilute with water if the broth is too strong) and bring to boiling point again. Thicken the sauce according to taste. Eat the goose with the stuffing, baked potatoes, apple mousse and sauce. While the goose is cooking, use the opportunity to take a stroll around the cemetery. SLICING ONIONS

Peeling and chopping seven onions can be a daunting task for sensitive souls. The use of swimming goggles is recommended or ski goggles, when available, since the latter are, of course, bigger and work better in many cases. Some people are of the firm belief that holding one’s breath during the cutting is an effective antidote. It normally takes less than a minute to peel and chop an onion, but seven onions represent a far greater challenge. There are also those who recommend peeling the onion under a tap of running cold water. If none of these remedies work, it is best to ask the nearest person to you to cut the onion, a man, for example. Although this is by no means a universal law, their emotional make-up is often structured differently, particularly with regard to the thickness of their skin. CARROT MOUSSE (SIDE DISH WITH GOOSE)

1 kilo of carrots, ½ cup of carrot juice, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 cup of cream, ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg. Wash carrots and boil in a pot with as little water as possible. The carrots are cooked when they become soft. Put them into a food processor or mixer, if you happen to have one handy in your home (if not mash the carrots with a fork) with a little bit of carrot juice, cream, salt, sugar and nutmeg. Eat it as a side dish with the wild goose or roasted lamb (see recipes). The same method can be applied for the making of turnip mousse by substituting turnips for the carrots. Or you can even mix the two vegetables to make carrot and turnip mousse. SUCCULENT REDCURRANT JELLY (SIDE DISH WITH GOOSE)

1–2 shrubs of redcurrant, sugar (60 % of the weight of the fruit). If you don’t have any redcurrants growing in your garden, you can always negotiate with a neighbour who doesn’t make any use of his or her bush — due, for example, to back problems or old age — and bribe them into allowing you to pick the berries in exchange for two succulent jars of redcurrant jelly. The island is littered with unexploited redcurrant bushes, particularly in the older neighbourhoods of towns. One needs to bear in mind that there is considerably more waste in the making of redcurrant jelly than other types of jelly. Pick the redcurrants and rinse them. There is no need to strip the currants from their light green stalks. Place in a big pot. Put on heat for 2–3 minutes and allow to boil or wait for the berries to start bursting. Turn off the heat and let it simmer a while in the pot. Tip the whole lot into the sieve and allow it to drip through. Add sugar (600 grams for each litre of juice). Boil for a few minutes or until it starts to thicken. Skim the froth off and make sure the juice does not boil for too long. The succulent redcurrant jelly is ready when it slides off a silver spoon in long blobs. If there is no silver spoon in the house, a normal spoon will do. Allow to cool and place in small jars. Remember to give your neighbour his/her jars. SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

Spaghetti, dry or fresh, a packet of bacon (preferably diced), 2 egg yolks, 1 pot of crème fraîche or 1 cup of cream, grated parmesan, olive oil. Boil water in a pot, salt it, throw the pasta in and cook it as instructed on package. Be careful not to over-boil it. Meanwhile, cut or slice the bacon into thin pieces and pan-fry them in a tiny bit of oil. Drain the water from the pasta through a sieve and then throw the pasta back into the pot again. Do not place the pot back over the stove. Mix the two egg yolks with the pasta and toss in the pieces of bacon with the tub of cream. You have to be quick mixing all this together to make sure the egg yolks don’t curdle. Sometimes the cheese is added into the pot. Season with freshly ground pepper and eat immediately with parmesan and, on special occasions, with a glass of Umbrian red wine. OVEN-BAKED PEPPERS

Sliced or whole peppers baked in the oven or grilled are one of the simplest dishes to make, and will normally just cook themselves, with a maximum time of 10–15 minutes. Peppers are rich in iron, beneficial to women, and make a good side dish with fish, meat, other vegetables, rice or as a dish on their own. It is the ideal dish for a woman taking her first steps in the culinary arts. Choose organic peppers and cut each one in four, slicing them lengthwise. Place them on a baking tray or an oven-proof plate, sprinkle them with olive oil and sea salt and bake. You can mix all colours of peppers, yellow, orange, green and red. Red peppers are the sweetest and tastiest, however. You can throw any kind of vegetable into the oven to roast, e.g. sliced vegetable marrow, mushrooms, leeks and aubergines. CHRISTMAS CAKE WITH RAISINS

When a guest appears unexpectedly, it is a good idea to buy Christmas cake in the nearest bakery, i.e. if guests appear with only ten minutes’ warning. That is normally the simplest way to be totally sure of the quality of the cake. Very few working single mothers actually have the time to bake a Christmas cake. The following, however, is a quick recipe. 2½ cups of flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, ½ cup of sugar, 1 egg, a few drops of vanilla, 2 cups of milk, 100 grams of butter, 50 grams of raisins. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Mix half of the milk and the egg into the dough. Melt the butter in a pot and mix it with the dough, remainder of the milk and vanilla drops.

Finally, mix in the raisins. Pour into a buttered cake tin and bake for 40 minutes. SOUR WHALE (FOR BUFFET)

1 kilo of whale blubber, 1 litre of whey. Even though sour whale might be offered on the buffet table of a kindergarten (along with black olives, mozzarella, feta cheese, French goat’s cheese, blood pudding, dried fish and mushrooms) in a novel, this isn’t a combination I would want to offer any guests of mine. Yet many young children are curious to taste this white whale jelly and it is very easy to make. As is well known, whale blubber is the thick layer of adipose tissue that covers the stomach of the whale and is rich in fat. The main obstacle is the scarcity of these basic ingredients. The method to be used is roughly as follows: wash the whale blubber, place it in a pot and boil it until it becomes tender. Drain it fully using a colander and then cut the blubber into pieces about 2cm thick. Then place it in a container, pour the whey over it and allow it to ferment. Make sure the blubber is completely covered by the whey and note that you may need to add whey from time to time. The blubber can be tasted after 5 days of fermentation in the whey. Keep in a cool place but do not freeze. If the whale blubber is transported between countries, ensure it is kept in a little whey in a container with a good lid. KRÚTTKEX (CUTIE COOKIES)

There is no guarantee that all of the food items mentioned in this novel can be found on the shelves of a supermarket. One example of this is the episode in which the narrator does a weekend shop for the child in her charge. The items mentioned include, among other things: whey, Superman yogurt, bananas, hopping sausages, children’s cheese, Little Rascal bread, milk, kindergarten pâté, alphabet pasta and Cutie cookies. Some of these products are to be found in stores, others not. However, since fiction can sometimes have a prophetic dimension, one cannot exclude the possibility that some of these products may appear on the market in the future. PORRIDGE

3 cups of water, 1 cup of organically grown oats, salt. When the water is on the point of boiling in the pot, put in the oats, salt it and mix it once. Remove the porridge from the heat as soon as it boils. That way the porridge stays granular and retains its original form. The porridge can also be cooked starting in cold water, which will make it softer and smoother. The porridge should then be boiled for two minutes and divided equally between two bowls, if both parties have the same appetite. Porridge is eaten with milk, or perhaps with a little cream. In Iceland some people like to substitute the milk with AB milk (a local dairy product produced from pasteurized and homogenized milk) http://www.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 JAR

Crowberries (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 SUGAR

2–3 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 BAKERY

Sesame 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 BUTTER

Buy 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. The fish balls should be eaten with butter and new potatoes, preferably from the November harvest, if available. The potatoes should be boiled at moderate heat for a short time so that they do not become too soft. Instead of butter, you can use curry sauce on the fish balls. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pot. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and mix together, then add 2 cups of milk and bring to the boil. Meanwhile keep on stirring. Season with Indian curry powder, salt and pepper, and finally add 1 teaspoon of sugar. LAMB PÂTÉ ON SLICES OF RYE BREAD

2 kilos of lamb meat, salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaves. Classic lamb pâté is made with pretty fat meat. Rinse the meat and let it simmer on a low heat in as little salted water as possible for an hour. Add a few bay leaves and two peeled onions in the last 30 minutes of boiling. At the end of the boiling the meat detaches itself from the bones. Remove the bones and put the meat into the mincer (or mixer) with the onion. Then put the pâté back into the pot and heat it. Season according to taste with, among other things, pepper and allspice. Allow the pâté to cool a while and then transfer to a suitably sized container or freezing-bag. Store in freezer. Eat on slices of rye bread. HOOCH (FOR PARTIES)

This is obviously a sensitive issue for many law-abiding citizens. The objective is not to encourage the production of hooch or other types of home-brew (with the exception of crowberry schnapps; see recipe above), but just to remind the reader that some drinks are better enjoyed on the page than in the stomach. There is no need to remind you that not only does hooch have a disgusting taste, but it can also cause temporary blackouts and do bodily harm. Five kilos of sugar are required for every 20 litres of water and about 4 tablespoons of yeast. Mix the sugar and yeast in water heated to 25 degrees and leave at a constant temperature for three weeks, e.g. in a windowless boiler room or greenhouse. Then check to see if the liquid has fermented, i.e. whether all the sugar has dissolved, by tasting one drop on the tip of your tongue. The mixture should then be moved to a cool place where it will be allowed to settle. This should kill all germs. The liquid obtained is known as gambri (non-distilled hooch) and is normally of a greyish-yellow colour. The gambri then needs to be distilled with what is very often home-made distilling equipment. Install the equipment in an appropriate place, e.g. in the guest toilet or in the garage. It will give off a bitter odour that those in the know will not fail to recognize. A large portion of the liquid evaporates during the distillation process, leaving you with just a few litres of alcohol. Finally, filter the brew through charcoal to purify it and reduce that home-brew taste. Some people improve the taste by adding essences, which they buy in bottles in special home-brew stores. MEAT-STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS

1 kilo of fresh sausage meat, 1 head of cabbage, butter (melted), 1½ kilos of potatoes. Buy 1 kilo of fresh sausage meat from the supermarket. Boil the head of cabbage in lightly salted water for 10 minutes or until it starts to soften. Allow it to cool and peel off its leaves. Calculate 4 cabbage leaves per person. Put 2 tablespoons of the sausage meat on each leaf, and then roll and wrap the leaf around the meat to create tidy rolls. Arrange the rolls in a pot with a thick bottom and add water to it. Cook the meat-stuffed cabbage rolls at moderate heat for 20 minutes. Eat the dish with potato purée and melted butter. The potato purée is prepared as follows. Boil the potatoes in water at a moderate heat for 15 minutes. Then drain them, place them back in the pot and mash them. Classic potato purée has 2 cups of milk, 2–3 tablespoons of sugar, a pinch of sea salt and a dab of butter. The sausage meat can also be fried as meat balls in the pan. You then cover the bottom of the pan with water, turn off the heat and place the lid on the pan and leave it to simmer for 5 minutes without any interference. That way the sausage meat begins to swell, doubling its volume, like rising dough. In some cases, the lid of the pan will even rise on its own. The sausage meat balls are then eaten with potato purée, butter and boiled white cabbage. UNDRINKABLE COFFEE

Undrinkable coffee can be made in a variety of ways. The simplest way is to leave a packet of coffee open in a cupboard with cream biscuits, light bulbs, batteries and teabags for several days. You can also make very thin coffee that is the same colour as tea. Another infallible method is to heat up old coffee, even in a microwave oven. HAMBURGERS

As anyone driving through the dark days of winter and endless stretches of black sand will realize, the petrol stations and snack bars that are to be found on the circular road around the island are just about the only distractions one comes across. The inevitable therefore happens, i.e. people end up eating junk food: hot dogs that have been simmering in a pot for an entire weekend, or hamburgers, mayonnaise sandwiches, express pizzas, whipped ice creams dipped in chocolate and bags of mixed sweets. This is not in any way an attempt to promote the dietary habits propagated by these establishments, nor the extremely dangerous dyes used to colour gumdrops and children’s excessive consumption of sugar, to mention but a few examples. The fact that the narrator buys three bars of chocolate for a four-year-old child who is unable to choose which one he wants should not be taken as exemplary behaviour either. In this context it should be pointed out that the narrator has no child of her own and is therefore no expert in raising children. Eating habits are, to some extent, dictated by circumstance, but above all by narrative necessity. The following is a recipe for home-made hamburgers. 200 grams of minced beef, salt, pepper, parsley, chives, 2 wholewheat hamburger buns, 1 tomato, 4 slices of cucumber, 4 leaves of salad (different types can be used: lettuce, rocket salad, scurvy grass and chickweed leaves). Sauce: 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons of milk curd or AB milk, 1 teaspoon of tomato sauce, half a teaspoon of French Dijon mustard. Mix the chopped parsley and chives with the minced meat and mould two handsome burgers. Salt and pepper. Fry the burgers in some olive oil in a pan or grill in the oven for 10 minutes. Lay out the leaves of salad on the heated bread buns and place the meat on them. Slice the tomato and cucumber and divide them equally between the two burgers. Put one tablespoon of sauce on top and then cover with the top of the bun. COCOA SOUP WITH RUSK AND WHIPPED CREAM

Many people who have been hospitalized for a short period of one to two days (to have their appendix removed, for example) might have memories of a lukewarm cocoa soup served with a soggy biscuit. However, good cocoa soup is a real treat when, for example, served as a dessert after fried fish on a Tuesday. 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 cups of water, a few drops of vanilla, 1 litre of milk, 1 tablespoon of potato flour, a pinch of salt, rusk, cream. Mix the cocoa and sugar in the water. Bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Then add milk and bring to the boil again. Mix the potato flour in a tiny bit of cold water and stir into the soup. Allow it to boil. Stir the vanilla drops into the soup last, but do not allow the soup to boil again. Eat the soup with the rusk, which everyone crumbles over their own bowls, allowing the crumbs to float on the surface. Place a dollop of thickly whipped cream on top. BANANA DESSERT

Bananas are a tasty, nutritious and healthy snack to take on a journey, and suitable to hand to a hungry child over one’s shoulder while driving a car. And now that I am getting to know children a bit better, I can tell you that my banana and chocolate milkshake has become one of my travelling companion’s favourites. Chuck the banana, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce into a mixer or food processor (or mix it by hand) and make a cold banana drink. If there is no freezer in the chalet to store ice cream in, cultured milk can be used instead.

And who doesn’t know the following simplest camping dessert recipe in the world? Calculate one banana per person. Make a long incision along the length of the banana with a sharp penknife and stick in 4–5 pieces of dark chocolate. Wrap the bananas in aluminium foil, place them on a cooling grill and allow to bake for a short while. Chocolate bananas can also be eaten with whipped cream. To whip the cream, pour it into a jar or container with a lid (e.g. an empty half-litre Fanta bottle) and shake it to a suitable rhythm, passing it from one person to the next, until the cream thickens. If you have a travel CD player handy you will be able to find some appropriate music. Fetch a bottle of Calvados from your backpack and eat the chocolate banana straight out of its wrapping with a spoon and whipped cream. Captain Morgan rum is not particularly recommended, except for men, who generally hold their drink better. Sit by the entrance of the tent or lie in zipped-together sleeping bags listening to snipes echoing through the night. MUSHROOM SOUP (LECCINUM SCABRUM)

1 kilo of freshly picked mushrooms (eg. Leccinum scabrum or porcini mushrooms), water, 1 cup of cream, ½ cup of port. Pick 1 kilo of mushrooms, then clean them by brushing off the soil and cutting their stems, before rinsing under running water and drying them. Trim the mushrooms or chop them and fry them in a pan in butter or in a pot with a thick bottom. Season and add a tablespoon of ground thyme if available. Add 2 litres of water and a cube of vegetable bouillon and cream. Take the pot off the stove and add the port. Serve with fresh bread. COKE IN A SMALL GLASS BOTTLE

In the 1970s, or at around the time I was born, it was popular to drink Coke from a small glass bottle through a liquorice straw. The method was as follows: uncap the bottle and slide a liquorice straw into the bottle. Ensure the Coke does not foam over the bottle. The skill lies in sucking up the Coke through the straw. There was also a tradition of leaving the liquorice straw steeped in the Coke for a certain period of time, say ten to fifteen minutes, to allow the liquorice to absorb the liquid in the meantime. The liquorice straw would then swell up, giving the Coke a brownish-grey colour and sticky consistency. The liquorice had to be pulled out of the bottle in time, before the straw started to turn to mush and blocked the neck of the bottle. APPLE PIE FROM GIANT RED APPLES WITH CREAM

The narrator has a vision of giant red apples in a dream. To dream of food is normally a good omen, provided the food is fresh and sufficient for the occasion. The circumstances and individual elements need to be carefully examined, however. Food doesn’t have the same taste in the world of dreams as it does in our wakeful state. On the other hand, dream recipes may have something in common with fictitious ones. An example of a fictitious recipe is the apple tart made out of giant red apples. In reality most people would, of course, use green apples to make an apple pie. There are hundreds of variations of apple tart recipes. The following is a very simple and delicious one. 4 giant red apples, 2 cups of peeled almonds, 1 bar of chocolate (100 grams), 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 cup of white sugar, 1 cup of butter, 1 cup of flour. Peel the apples and slice them into small pieces. Place them at the base of a buttered baking pan. Sprinkle the almonds and chopped chocolate over them, followed by a tablespoon of brown sugar. Mix the flour, sugar and butter so that it turns into a light yellow dough, like marzipan. Roll out the dough with your hands, spreading it over the filling. Press the dough all around the perimeter of the pan. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes and eat with whipped cream. GRILLED SNOW BUNTING, HIGHLANDS-STYLE

Please note that the following recipe should not be construed as an incitement to kill small protected feathered birds. It is not unlikely that the foreign hunters targeted the snow buntings because of their lack of familiarity with this species and poor knowledge of local regulations, since as everyone knows snow buntings are a sedentary breed and therefore Icelandic through and through. Overseas, small birds are a popular source of food and often impaled on skewers and then roasted over an open fire. On drizzly November days it is in many ways more suitable to cook small birds in baking trays in the heated electric ovens of highland kitchens. The narrator bears no responsibility for this recipe. 16 snow buntings, 20 pearl onions, salt, pepper, 2 cups of cream, a packet of bacon, mushrooms, 8 slices of white bread, milk, garlic, parsley. Start by plucking the birds. First cut the wings, necks and legs. The necks, if there are any, can be used for the juice. Next cut the skin under the sternum and peel it off like a coat. Then make an incision under the wing bone and extract the innards, gizzard, heart and liver. Put the hearts aside. Rinse the birds, salt and pepper them, both inside and out, and line them up on the draining board while you prepare the filling. Fry the small pieces of bacon and finely cut hearts in butter for 10 minutes. The hearts will give the broth a strong taste. Before frying them, though, make a small incision in each heart to drain the blood from it. Add the chopped mushrooms and garlic. Immerse the slices of white bread, devoid of their crust, in milk. Mix the bacon, hearts, mushrooms, garlic, wet bread, chopped parsley and other spices and stuff the filling into the small birds. Peel the pearl onions and fry them with the birds in butter in the pan for 10 minutes. Brown the birds on all sides. Arrange the birds, side by side, in the baking tray, pour cream on them and bake for 40 minutes. Sixteen snow buntings can easily fit into the average-size baking tray. Eat them with stuffing, green salad and macaroni. ICELANDIC MEAT SOUP

It should be noted that the contents of this soup will vary according to whether it is made in the summer or winter and the availability of vegetables in any given place or time. 1 kilo of lamb meat (shoulder or leg), 2½ litres of water, 2 tablespoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, ½ cup rice (it is good to use brown rice, which you will need to pre-boil, however), 4 tablespoons of oats or barley, 4 tablespoons of dry soup herbs, 1 big turnip or 2 small ones, 10 small potatoes, preferably unpeeled, 5 carrots, 1–2 onions or one leek. Celery can also be used (both stalk and leaves), fresh spinach, garden dock, green cabbage, broccoli and whatever other vegetable happens to be handy in each case. Rinse the meat, cut it into rather small pieces and put it into a pot. Cover with water, salt it, close the lid and boil for 15 minutes. Lift the lid and skim off the froth. Add water to the pot and then the various vegetables, according to the cooking time of each one. Be careful not to overcook the vegetables. Boil it all together until it fuses. It is good to throw some thyme into the soup and some chopped mint, which grows wild in many parts of Iceland and is particularly good with lamb, since it reduces that farm shed taste. SHEEP’S HEAD JELLY

After torching the sheep’s heads, brush them with an abrasive brush to wash away the soot. Next place the heads in lukewarm water and scrub them well, both internally and externally, making sure that you scrape the eyes and ears. Arrange the black heads together in a big pot, salt them and pour water over them, without necessarily covering them. When the pot comes to the boil, brown froth should ooze out of the heads. Seal the pot and boil the heads at a moderate heat for an hour or until the meat loosens from the bone. De-bone the meat and place it in a tin (e.g. Christmas cake tin). Remove the eyeballs, although it is a question of taste whether the eyes and ears should be left in the jelly. Pour a little broth over it to ensure it glues together better. Store under light pressure in the fridge overnight, then turn it upside down and cut it into slices. Sheep’s head jelly is more often than not eaten with turnip mousse or boiled potatoes and white milk sauce. PEPPER COOKIES WITH ICING SUGAR

The baking of pepper cookies in close collaboration with a child is a permanent feature in any household with a kid in the lead-up to Christmas. 150 grams of sugar, 250 grams of syrup, ½ teaspoon of pepper, 2 teaspoons of ginger, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of cloves, 125 grams of butter, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 400 grams of flour. Mix the sugar, syrup and butter and bring to simmering point. Mix in the baking soda with all the spices, pepper, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Then add the egg and flour. Keep 1–2 cups of flour to knead the dough. Knead the dough on the table with the child. Roll out the dough and let the child cut out the shapes him/herself (Santa Clauses, Christmas trees, bells, angels and reindeer) and decorate the cookies with the icing. Icing: 125 grams of icing sugar and 1–1½ egg whites mixed well together. Colour according to taste. HOT COCOA

2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 tablespoons of sugar, ½ cup of water, ½ litre of milk. Mix cocoa and sugar in a pot of water. Heat and stir until boiling point. Add the milk and bring to a boil again. HOT CHOCOLATE FROM REAL CHOCOLATE BARS

2 bars (200 grams) of chocolate, 2 cups of water, 1 litre of fresh milk, a pinch of salt. Break the chocolate over a pot and pour water over it. Heat and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Add a pinch of salt. It is good to drink boiling hot with whipped cream in a country house on a cold and rainy day. You can also pour the hot chocolate into a thermos and take it with an extra cup on a visit to an old people’s home. KLEINUR (TWISTED DOUGHNUTS)

500 grams of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1½ teaspoons of baking soda, 75 grams of margarine, ½ cup sugar, 1 egg, 2 cups of cultured milk. Mix the baking and soda powder with the flour in a bowl. Add the mashed margarine, egg, milk and sugar. Knead the dough and then flatten it out with a rolling pin into rather thick pieces, i.e. up to 1 cm thick. Sprinkle the table with flour before flattening out the dough. Cut the dough into strips of about 4 cm in width. Then cut those into pieces of about 8 cm in length. Cut a small slit in the middle of each piece of dough (future twisted doughnut) and gently pull one end through the slit to make the twists in the doughnuts. Arrange the doughnuts side by side on a tray and leave them there while you heat the oil in a pot. Immerse the doughnuts in the fat and then fish them out again with a perforated spatula when they turn to a brownish colour. Deposit them on fat-absorbent paper, e.g. newspapers, and then move them to an old-fashioned floral bowl or heirloom, even. SKONSUR (THICK ICELANDIC PANCAKES)

4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate, 1 egg, milk as required. Ensure the dough is not too thin. Fry on a skillet at medium heat. FOUR-TIERED MAYONNAISE SANDWICH CAKE (FOR FUNERAL RECEPTIONS)

(Estimated 200 mourners in the church and 80 mourners at the funeral reception.) 5 loaves of white bread, egg, “salmon petals” and parsley for decorating purposes.

Shrimp salad: 7 hard-boiled eggs, 500 grams of shrimp, mayonnaise. Salmon salad: 7 hard-boiled eggs, 1 fillet of smoked salmon, mayonnaise. Tuna fish salad: 7 hard-boiled eggs, canned tuna fish, mayonnaise.

Buy 5 loaves of white bread and cut off the crusts. Cut the bread lengthwise into four slices that will make up the four tiers or layers of the sandwich cake. Choose an adequately sized plate for the cake and place the bottom tier on it. You can make the shrimp salad by mixing the shrimp and chopped hard-boiled eggs with the mayonnaise or a mixture of mayonnaise and crème fraîche or mixture of crème fraîche and fermented AB milk. Salmon and tuna fish salads are prepared in the same manner, except that instead of using shrimp you use finely chopped smoked salmon or mashed tuna fish out of a can. If you like you can add flavour to the mayonnaise salads with a touch of Dijon mustard and herbal salts. Spread the bottom tier with shrimp salad and place the next tier of bread on top of it, over which you then spread salmon salad. The tuna fish salad goes on the top tier of the cake. Finally spread a thin layer of mayonnaise over the top of the cake (the sides too if you like) and decorate it with slices of boiled egg and “salmon petals”. You can also use icing bags to adorn the rim of the cake with mayonnaise puffs, as if you were decorating a cream cake. Chop the parsley and stick a parsley shoot into the salmon petal. The sandwich cake is cut into large slices like a big cream cake. Even though the slicing of this cake may seem a little daunting at first, experience has shown that guests at funeral receptions normally manage the task with surprising skill and without the need for assistance from relatives. SUSHI (FOR FUNERAL RECEPTIONS)

(Estimated 200 mourners in the church and 80 mourners at the funeral reception. Only some of the mourners are likely to eat sushi, however, which is why alternative dishes should be offered, e.g. see mayonnaise sandwich cake recipe above.) 1 kilo of sushi rice, 25 seaweed sheets (each roll is cut into 7 pieces, which makes 175 pieces), 1 cucumber, 1 avocado, three types of raw fish, e.g. salmon, halibut or cod, trout or salmon roe (jars are OK), wasabi (available in ready-made tubes or as powder in jars to be diluted in water), sesame seeds (approx. 1 teaspoon for each sheet of seaweed), pickled ginger, Japanese soy sauce.

Rinse the rice until the water is almost transparent — about ten times is recommended. Boil the sushi rice, carefully following the instructions on the packet. While the rice is boiling, chop the vegetables and raw fish into very thin strips. Spread out the seaweed sheets and coat four-fifths of each sheet with a thin layer of compressed rice. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sesame seeds over the rice. Garnish with fine strips of vegetable and raw fish. Spread a very thin layer of wasabi paste on the edges of the seaweed sheets and then roll them tightly together, as if you were making a Swiss roll. Slice the roll into reasonably sized morsels with a sharp knife. Put the morsels into a bowl with Japanese soy sauce and eat with pink pickled ginger. HORSE SAUSAGE MEAT WITH BOILED POTATOES AND WHITE SAUCE

This is a dish that the narrator managed to botch; she therefore does not recommend it. 8 centimetres of horse sausage meat, 2 potatoes, 1 tablespoon of margarine, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 cup of milk, salt, sugar. Boil the meat in water for 10 minutes. Allow the potatoes to boil for an excessively long time or at too high a temperature so that they will be overdone and crumble when you try to peel them. To make the white sauce, melt the margarine in a pot with flour and dilute with milk. Add a pinch of salt and sugar. Cook at a moderate heat in an uncovered pot for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. The sauce should be white, sticky and glistening, preferably without any clots and too much taste. Serve lukewarm. OVEN-ROASTED LAMB

1 leg of lamb, rosemary, salt, pepper. The meat should be quite muscular and not too fat. If the raw material is good, it is difficult to go wrong with oven-roasted lamb. It is best to use meat that has not been frozen, otherwise it will need to thaw in the fridge for five days and then on the kitchen table for a few hours before being cooked. Turn the meat and remove any fat, if there is any. Brush a drizzle of olive oil on the meat and season with salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. Once upon a time, rosemary used to be included in a bride’s bouquet of flowers because it was believed to provide protection against heart aches. Slip the meat into the oven at a very high heat for 10 minutes. Then move the meat to the bottom of the oven and roast it at a very low heat for up to two hours — but no more than half an hour if the meat has been de-boned. If you like you can put 1 cup of water into the baking tray to get more broth out of the meat. A tablespoon of soy sauce in the sauce pot sharpens the taste. If the sauce fails you can always save it by adding a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. Eat with traditional side dishes for lamb: caramel potatoes, red cabbage and redcurrant jelly. While you are browning the potatoes, you can also fry slices of lightly boiled turnip in the sugar as well. Drink with a cocktail of malt and orangeade. CORRECTLY BOILED EGGS

The art of boiling eggs for the correct amount of time is not quite as simple as some people seem to imagine — confident as one may be who hasn’t ended up either boiling en egg for too long, making the outer layer of the yolk turn purple, or for too little, making the white of the egg ooze out between one’s fingers. Why not use an egg-timer then, some might ask? The use of an hourglass requires one’s undivided attention; you can’t just leave it to go and check on a child, for example, or to empty a washing machine. One might as well be staring at the second hand of a watch. If you are feeling insecure about your grasp of the passage of time, scrambled eggs would make a safer option. HALIBUT SOUP

3 good pieces of halibut with bones (salmon can be used instead). Ask your fishmonger to give you the bones, cuts and heads from the halibut or salmon to use in the broth. 1 litre of water, 1 litre of whey, 4 bay leaves, 4–8 peppercorns, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 7 prunes, ½ cup of raisins, 3 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of sugar (you can also use syrup), cream. Put the fish heads and bones in a pot with the bay leaves, peppercorns, sea salt, 1 litre of water and 1 litre of whey. Boil for one hour to get a good broth. Filter it through a sieve and pour the clear broth back into the pot. Bring to the boil again and immerse the pieces of fish in the nice broth. Add 7 prunes and half a cup of raisins and cook them slowly with the fish for a few minutes. Take the pieces of fish out of the broth, wrap them in aluminium foil and put them in the oven at moderate heat, while you finish making the soup. Whisk 3 egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of sugar and pour the mixture into the broth. Bring the soup to simmering point again, without, however, allowing it to boil. Whip the cream and, at the moment of serving the soup, put 1 tablespoon in each bowl. Eat with hot pieces of fish, freshly boiled potatoes and a good cucumber salad. SILVER TEA

Boil water. Fill one-third of a glass with cold milk and then fill the other two-thirds with boiled water. Flavour with honey. Drink after dinner, with a child who has put on his/her pyjamas, just before brushing his/her teeth. Discuss the events of the day and plan the next day together over silver tea. (Silver tea is not to be confused with priest tea, which is basically a Melrose teabag with a shot of schnapps or hooch and 1 teaspoon of sugar.) WHALE STEAK

This is another example of a dish prepared by secondary characters, for which the narrator bears limited liability (also see grilled snow bunting, highlands-style). In any case, the passing-on of this whale steak recipe should not in itself be interpreted as a reflection of the narrator’s stand on whale-hunting. It should be pointed out that the meat in question is from a so-called “drift whale”, that is to say a whale that has been beached by providence and not hunted. In fact the provenance of the whale remains a total mystery, since it could just as well have come from over the highlands as the lagoon. It is, nonetheless, an undeniable fact that every now and then one of two things can happen: a sizeable sei whale or baleen whale will get washed up on the shores of a small community without warning or a small porpoise will get entangled in a fishing boat’s net without any hope of being revived, despite the efforts of the crew. This recipe is conceived for four to six people. If you need to feed a higher number than this or indeed the population of an entire village, increase the portions accordingly. As a result, a whole whale may be required. 1 piece of whale meat, salt, pepper, 2 cups of cream. In the past, whale meat used to be left steeped in milk overnight to kill that liver oil taste. Then the meat was generally boiled in a pot for several hours, after being briefly sautéed in margarine. The following is a more modern method in which the meat is handled in a similar way to beef. Cut the whale meat into long, thin slices, removing the nerves and fat if necessary. Pan-fry the meat in olive oil, seasoning it with salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove the meat from the pan while you make cream sauce from the broth with cream. Lower the heat under the sauce, taste and add pepper if needed. Then neatly place the meat in the pan with the sauce. Eat with the side dishes of your choice, e.g. lightly boiled vegetables, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. LUMMUR (ICELANDIC PANCAKES)

Rice pudding leftovers, (approximately 2 cups), 1 cup of flour, 2 eggs, ½ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1½ cups of milk, frying butter. Mix everything together in a bowl, adding the milk last. Melt butter in a pan. A four-year-old can make lummur with very little assistance when he/she is, for example, recovering from being drenched in a puddle. Place your assistant on a safe stool by the stove, tie an apron around him and allow him to place the floating dough on the hot pan with a small ladle. If you hold the handle of the pan for the child and make sure he/she doesn’t burn him/herself, the child can easily flip the pancakes with a spatula and then fish them out when they have been browned and place them on a plate. Allow the child to sugar the lummur. Lummur can also be eaten with syrup or jam. It is a good idea to make lummur and hot chocolate while the child’s boots are drying by the oven. KNITTING BABY SOCKS

This recipe is designed for one baby. In the event of there being twins, two pairs will need to be knitted. The older siblings are expected to knit the socks. Help the child cast 44 stitches on a circular number 3 knitting needle. Allow the child to choose the colour of the yarn. Teach the child to knit in 8-centimetre-long loops and narrow rows (folded over) knitting into the front and back of the stitch alternately. It could take several weeks to knit each row if the child is learning to knit for the first time. The remainder of the sock is knitted back and forth in the garter stitch. When this point is reached, it is a good idea to find some good person with some experience in knitting socks for infants who might be willing to teach the skill to a child. The child can then work on the project every day and knit several stitches from time to time, while the supervisor helps him/her not to lose his/her thread. Allow the garter stitch to start from the centre and behind. Help the child to knit 1 centimetre. Place the first and last stitch in the row to one side while you continue to knit the middle garter stitch and knit a total of 4 centimetres. Now load all the stitches back onto the needle and knit a 3-centimetre top for the sock. Then slip the first and last stitches off the needle and start to knit the sole. Knit an additional 9 centimetres. Slip off all stitches. Weave in the ends of the sock for the child and bend the tops of the sides.