Gummi´s Bistro

Hi Friends

I held a dinner party for my mother in law and Rakels grandma who were visiting from Iceland. My little princess Lilja Marin turned 3 years old yesterday and they flew over from Iceland to be here for the birthday party. I am sorry about the quality of the pictures, it was late at night.

le amuse-bouche

Chickpea salad with feta cheese on spicy flatbread

L´entrée

Cauliflower panna cotta with caviar and vodka jelly

le plat pricipal

Lemon sole poached in red wine with potato mash and confit tomatoes topped with scallops

le dessert

Pear tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream

Concertina Squid with balsamic butter, parsley and chilli

This is a really cool way of preparing squid. It looks great and it allows the squid to take on flavors and seasoning in an interesting way.

Serves 4

1kg medium-sized squid, skinned and gutted
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

125g butter
2 garlic cloves
1 red chilly, deseeded and finely sliced
5 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ lemon, juiced
salt and white pepper

Take the squid and place a large cook´s knife or wooden spatula into its tube. Using another cook´s knife, slice the squid along its length at 1 cm intervals. As the second knife cuts down on to the knife the retains its ahape but also opens up in a fantastic way. Do the same to the remaining squid.

Add a little olive oil to a hot pan and fry the squid for about 2 minutes on each side and season with salt and pepper.

Take the squid off the pan and set aside. Add the butter to the pan and sweat the garlic, chilli, parsley with the balsamic vinegar. Season with white pepper, salt and lemon juice. Arrange the squid on each plate and pour the butter over. Serve with some boiled potatoes and green salad.

Milky Cardamom Macaroni porridge

I remember that my mom used to make this milk and macaroni porridge when I was little and I just loved it. It has followed me trough the years and now I make it for my little one….funny how these things work. The other day I just wanted to posh it up a bit and I added some ground cardamom seeds and it worked really well. If you don’t have cardamom pods you can always add some cardamom extract (kardamommu dropa) instead.

1L milk
5dl macaroni
2tbsp sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cardamom
½ tsp nutmeg

Pour the milk into a pot and turn the heat to high. Add the macaroni and stir so the macaroni does not stick. Bash the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortal, remove the skins and bash the seeds until they are fine powder. Add the sugar, vanilla, cardamom and nutmeg to the pot and stir together. Bring it to the boil while stirring well. Turn the heat down and keep stirring until the macaroni is cooked (approx. 10-12 minutes) and the milk has thickened.

Serve with some sugar and cinnamon.

Spinach and Avocado Salad with Feta cheese

Nice and simple salat which goes well with chicken or fish and a glass of white wine, like Gustave Lorentz Riesling Réserve.

200g spinach
150g runner beans
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 avocados, halved and the stone removed
150g feta cheese
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

Mix the spinach, beans, onion together in a bowl. Scoop the avocado out with the spoon and mix together with the salad. Dress the salad with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the feta cheese on top and serve.

Oatmeal & Rhubarb Scones

This is a great sunday morning treat for the whole family and this particular recipe lends itself to endless possibilities of combinations. I used rhubarb because I had it in the fridge, but you can use whatever you like, for example blueberry jam, raspberry jam or apricot.

500g whole wheat flour
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
200g butter, chilled and cut into little cubes
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk, full fat (nýmjólk)
200g oatmeal
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
zest from 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line a baking tray with some baking paper (bökunarpappír)

Combine the flour, oatmeal, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Cut the butter into the flour mixture and pulse together until it resembles a sandy flour. Pulse in the sugar. Now add the milk, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Pulse together until the dough just comes together and if the dough is too dry just add some milk.

Turn out onto a floured surface. Divide into two equal sized pieces and start rolling one at a time into a square 1cm thick. You want to keep the dough from sticking to the surface so sprinkle with some more flour if needed.

Slather the dough with the jam and fold the left side of the dough in toward the center and then the right side. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Both pieces will fit on one baking tray but give them a few centimeters between each other so they don´t bake into each other. Brush with a bit of cream or a beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

While the scones are baking, prepare the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl. Stir until well combined and set aside. When the scones come out of the oven brush them generously with the glaze and let cool. Slice into pieces as big or small as you like.

Asparagus and Gorgonzola Potato Quiche

Once you try this one it is going to be a classic that you do regularly. This quiche goes really well with some fresh salad dressed with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper……bon appetit.

500g fresh asparagus
5 sheets filo pastry
50g melted butter
600g potato, peeled
100g cheddar cheese
100g gryere cheese
100g gorgonzola cheese
300ml double cream
3 eggs
handful fresh sage, chopped
½ tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper

Turn on the oven to 190˚C. Start boiling the potatoes in some salted water. Brush the filo pastry with the melted butter and layer into an oven-proof dish (work quickly so the filo pastry doesn´t dry).

When the potatoes are ready, pour off the water and add the cheese to the potatoes in a bowl and mash together. Add the cream, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Add the eggs and work together with the potato.

Put the asparagus in some boiling salted water for a few minutes until half-cooked and then take them out of the water.

Pour the potato-cheese mix into the oven-proof dish, layer the asparagus over and scatter the sage on top. Brush everything with some melted butter and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Lemon Meringue Pudding

This is a really easy pudding to make.…and cheap, which comes in good hand if you look at what is going on in Iceland with the financial crisis. I am not sure the Icelandic people are going to have the money for deserts for the next few years….so you better learn to love this one :-) . But all jokes aside , this pudding goes really well with ice cream or some whipped cream and a large ice cold glass of milk….yummy.

60g butter
1 ½ dl sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs , separated
1 dl flour
1tsp baking powder
3dl milk

for the meringue:
2 egg whites
40g unrefined sugar (hrásykur)


Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Wisp the yolks, sugar and lemon zest together until fluffy and smooth. Add the milk and lemon juice and whisk together.

Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until stiff and gently fold them together with the lemon mixture. Grease an ovenproof dish with some butter and pour in the mixture, then place it in a deep oven rack and fill in ½ of the way with water and bake for 45 minutes.

When the pudding is ready, make the meringue topping while the pudding cools down a bit. Whisk the egg whites with a little pinch of salt until it forms peaks, then add the sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Spread the merang on top and run a brulée burner or a little blowtorch over to get the “baked-effect”. Serve with some ice cream, whipped cream or vanilla mascarpone (seeds from 1 vanilla pod and 250g mascarpone cheese)