exams

Hello friends

This will be my last entry until the beginning of june. I am studying for my chiropractic pre-clinik exams and that will take all my time and energi. Wish me luck......

Guðmundur Birkir Pálmason

Rhubarb Soufflé – with vanilla custard

400g rhubarb, cut into 2.5cm chunks

100g caster sugar 25g softened butter

6 gingersnap biscuits

150g readymade custard, plus extra for serving

1 large egg yolk, plus 4 egg whites
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp plain flour
sea salt

6 servings

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and put in a baking tray to heat up. Put the rhubarb into a saucepan with the 100g of sugar. Put a lid on the pan and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft. Put to one side and leave to cool completely. Get yourself six ramekin dishes and rub their insides with the butter. Put the gingersnap biscuits into a sandwich bag, tie a knot in the top and smash the biscuits with a rolling pin or the bottom of a pan to make quite fine crumbs. Dust the insides of the buttered ramekins with the smashed biscuits, then shake out any excess crumbs.

2. Blob a tablespoon of the cooled stewed rhubarb into each ramekin dish. Mix the rest of the rhubarb with the custard, the egg yolk and the flour. In a large bowl, using an electric whisk, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until you have soft peaks. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and whisk on a high speed until the whites are very stiff – this should take about 3 minutes.

3. Working very gently, fold 2 spoonfuls of the stiff egg whites into the rhubarb mixture. Tip this into the bowl containing the remaining egg whites and fold together very carefully. Divide the mixture between the ramekins and level the tops. Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and place the ramekins on it. Put back into the preheated oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the soufflés are a lovely golden colour and have risen nicely. Make a hole in the middle of the soufflé with a spoon and dollop two or three tsp of vanilla custard into the hole. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Baklava with Vanilla-Mascarpone

This delicious mini pastry comes somewhere from the middle-east.....turkey or something (it´s all the same to me). It is unbelievably sweet and you get quite enough after a few bites but those bites are worth the effort of making these. I urge you not to be scared of making these but you must follow the method really well because the filo pastry is really fragile and it can dry up really quickly. Good luck :)

Makes 20 baklavas

Pastry
378g filo pastry, one packet
180g butter, melted
2tsp water

filling
150g walnuts
150gpistachios
60g sugar
1tsp cinnamon

honey syrup
375g honey
165g sugar
250ml water
1 lemon, zest and juice

Preheat oven to 180°C To make the filling, spread the walnuts on a baking tray and lightly toast in the preheated oven for 5-8 minutes or until aromatic. Cool.

Combine walnuts, pistachios, sugar and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor and process using the pulse button until they are finely chopped.

Remove the filo pastry from its packet and lie flat on the work bench. Cover with a dry tea towel and then a damp tea towel. (This will keep the filo from drying out while making the baklava.)

Brush a shallow 18 x 28cm cake tin with some of the butter. Take 1/3 of the sheets of filo. Brush the top sheet generously with butter and fold into thirds to make a rectangle the size of the tin.

Place in the base of the buttered tin and brush surface with butter.
Continue layering with the left over 1/3 of pastry. Spread 1/2 of the nut filling over the filo to cover. Layer 1/2 of the remaining filo sheets as before. Spread left over nut filling over filo and top with the remaining layered buttered filo sheets. Lightly brush top with remaining butter.

Using a sharp knife, cut a diamond pattern into the top layer of filo and sprinkle with the water.


Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes longer or until the filo layers are cooked through.

Meanwhile, to make the honey syrup, combine honey, sugar, water, lemon rind and juice in a saucepan and stir over high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and maintain over medium heat for 10 minutes or until the syrup has thickened slightly.


Remove from heat and allow to cool. When cooked, remove baklava from the oven and immediately pour the cooled syrup evenly over the surface. Stand to cool completely. Cover with foil and store at room temperature in the tin for up to 2 weeks.

Cut into diamond shapes to serve with espresso coffee or as a dessert with whipped cream.

Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble

I love making different types of crumbles and cobbler pies, there are so many variations you can make. My favorite is still my oldest recipe of apple crumble wich I got from my mom many years ago and it never fails to impress, and I think I can go as far as saying that it is my all time favorite dessert but in combination with some vanilla ice cream of course. But back to this recipe, the key ingredient in this recipe is the stem ginger, wich goes really well with all kinds of desserts. You can buy the stem ginger in all the mayor supermarkets now.

1kg rhubarb stalks, cut into 5cm pieces
1tbsp water
4 tbsp caster sugar
1tbsp chopped Preserved stem ginger, in syrup

For the crumble:
100g butter
100g caster sugar
200g plain flour
50g toasted flaked almonds

6 - 8 servings

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

2. Place the rhubarb chunks on a shallow roasting pan, sprinkle with the water and 4 tablespoons of caster sugar. Bake for 10 minutes.

3. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the ginger.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 190°C.

5. Tip the rhubarb mixture into a baking dish about 4cm deep.

6. To make the crumble, combine the butter, sugar and flour in a bowl. Rub with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

7. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the rhubarb. Bake for 10 minutes until golden.

8. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Serve with ice-cream or double cream

Icelandic Oatmeal and Blueberry Pie

This is an old icelandic classic called "Hjónabandssæla" which means "happy merriage". I do not know if this is the secret of a happy merriage but it sure is tasty...:) Mein frau Rakel is the creator of this recipe so don´t forget to praise her in your comments.

200g butter, room temperature
170g oatmeal
170g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1tsp bicarbonate
blueberry jam

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.

Add the butter, oatmeal, flour, sugar and bicarbonate into a large bowl and work together with your hands…..or you can add all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you get a fine sandy textured dough.

Take 2/3 of the dough and push into a buttered cake dish with your hands.

Spread the blueberry jam over and then just sprinkle the rest of the dough over the jam.
Bake for 30 minutes in the middle shelf.

Sesam Thins

These sesam thins are a great snack between meals and also fantastic to serve with a chocolate mousse. But be carefull when you make these becouse you can burn your self pretty badly if you not carefull......so no kids allowed in the kitchen when you are making these sesam thins.

5 dl caster sugar

8 tbsp of water
200g sesam seeds

Pour the sugar and 8 tbsp of water onto a hot pan. Let the sugar melt into a golden brown caramel. Sprinkle over the sesam seeds and continue cooking until dark brown.

Pour onto a oiled teflon sheet and spread with a knife to ½ cm thickness....or thinner if you can. Let it cool down for 15 minutes and then break into pieces. Lovely to serve some chocolate mousse with the sesam thins

Panna Cotta with Mango

This recipe is in honor of my first book........"Mín Ítalía", wich you can not buy at the moment, but if you are lucky you will maby get one for your birthday...:) This is one of 50 recipes in this book and the theme is......... Italian cooking at it´s best!! My friend Marius Johannessen took this picture as others in this book and he does a fantastic job.

You can check out my new book at http://www.blurb.com/books/576488

350ml heavy cream

120ml milk

3 gelatin sheets

1 fresh mango, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp vanilla sugar (caster sugar mixed with seeds from vanilla pod)

1 tbsp honey

4 servings

1. Pour the cream and milk into a heavy saucepan. Add gelatin sheets.

2. Place pan over medium heat and stir until gelatin dissolves. Do not boil. Add sugar and honey and continue to stir until sugar is melted.

3. Just before cream and milk come to a boil, remove from heat. Pour mixture through a strainer to remove foam and to ensure a velvety consistency.

4. Let cooked cream cool down and add 3/4 of the mango. Pour into wine glasses and chill in refrigerator for six hours.