Christmas Dinner

13 comments

1. Glazed ham or smoked rack of pork, I don’t know which one is the more correct way to say it and waldorf salad or ptarmigan with its sauce which I don’t know the recipe:D

2. Almost everything really christmassy is very Icelandic, Hangikjöt, Malt and Appelsín, Nóa konfekt..

   You could try to make laufabrauð, and smoked rack of pork for main dish, that might be your best bet.

3. The problem you will run into is the fact tha Icelandic food is not really vegetarian but beond that hangikjöt with potatos and uppstúf can’t fail and for a vegitarian desert that everyone can enjoy i recomend skyrterta wich is a cheesecake like dessert but made with skyr.

4. Pretty much every Icelandic meat-eating household will have one of the following on Christmas Eve:

   * Hamborgarahryggur (Glazed ham)

   * Hangikjöt (Smoked lamb)

   * Rjúpa (Rock ptarmigan)

   * Purusteik (pork roast with crackling)

   Fish soup is a bit of an odd entrée for Christmas eve, but I think it’s a really good choice: just be careful not to make it too heavy given you’re literally going to be eating Christmas dinner which is not a light meal. A more common entrée would be rice pudding (with cinnamon sugar on top) in which a single plate secretly has a whole almond in it. The person who gets the almond gets a small present.

   Deserts can be pretty much whatever. In my house we generally don’t do desert on christmas eve but my fiancées family has meringue in whipped cream with fruits and berries and chopped mars bars, and just coffee and after-eight for the people who very reasonably are too full to eat a cream-based desert right after a Christmas roast.

   Icelandic cuisine generally doesn’t have much wiggle room for vegetarian food (not a lot grows here) so I’ve heard every which way variation of vegan Christmas eve dinners. I think tofu-steak and nut-steak are currently fashionable but I may very well be wrong on that.

   Laufabrauð is an *extremely* Icelandic type of deep fried flat bread. Brown gravy or pepper sauce is common accompanying the meat, as well is Ora green beans, potatoes, red beets (or red beet salads), and other simple sides. The traditional christmas drink of choice is Malt&Appelsín. Malt is a malted barley drink. Appelsín is Icelandic orange soda. Mix them in about a 50:50 ratio and you’ve got the traditional Christmas beverage.

5. Lobster soup, made from scratch. Best. Starter. Ever.

   https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/icelandic-creamy-langoustine-soup/

   Laufabrauð (leaf bread). Crucial side dish. Works well on its own, with butter or Mysingur (brown cheese spread).

   https://www.google.com/amp/s/bake-street.com/en/laufabraud-icelandic-leaf-bread/amp/

   Hamborgarhryggur (glazed ham) and/or Hangikjöt (smoked lamb) as main.

   Malt&appelsín to drink. (Semi-alcoholic malt soda mixed with orange soda).

   https://www.shopicelandic.com/products/malt-og-appelsin-500ml

   Enjoy Icelandic christmas 🙂

6. You can make a vegan version of hamborgarhryggur (glazed ham): [https://graenkerar.is/recipe/hamborgaroumph/](https://graenkerar.is/recipe/hamborgaroumph/) and hangikjöt (smoked lamb): [https://graenkerar.is/recipe/hangioumph/](https://graenkerar.is/recipe/hangioumph/)

   Obviously they don’t taste the same, but the spices do give you a similar taste. I used to eat hamborgarhryggur every Christmas until I stopped eating meat and I made the vegan version last year. It was real yummy with a golden syrup and dijon mustard glaze

   As a dessert, my mom always makes homemade toblerone ice cream (just eggs, creams, sugar and toblerone put into a mold and frozen)

7. yay! Noice to see me recipe photos come up here! 🙂

   You’ve got lots of mest options, but for a veggie dish you can make a make a savoury Rice pudding. It’s deeeeeelish!

8. Go with lamb rack the pork is a Danish dish and a bad habit left over from colonial times real Icelanders eat lamb for Christmas or rjúpa but not sure if your able to get that. Look up laufabrauð it’s fried bread and hangikjöt smoked lamb meat. vegetarian you should forget about. And if you can get Malt and Appelsín then your Christmas will be Icelandic.

9. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risalamande is pretty common, easy to make vegetarian/vegan.

10. Christmas is the number one time my family goes all out on Icelandic desserts. My mother starts by making a few hundred Kleinur (almost savoury donuts) to distribute to all the members of the family. Each year is always slightly different as to the desserts she follows this up with, but some are:

    Vínarterta (a multi-layered cookie and jam cake)

    Vinarbrauð (Similar to Vínarterta, but with only one layer and with an almond glaze on top)

    Pönnukökur (Crepes, usually filled with jam and whipped cream)

    Krydd Terta (Multi-layered spice cake. Next to Kleinur, this is my favourite)

    To add additional “flavour” to your event, keep in mind that the traditional gifts to give at Christmas are books. Perhaps give a book on Iceland to each guest?

    Gleðileg jól!

11. Yule dinner* we don’t celebrate Christmas on Christmas day.

12. Some icelandic people eat “Möndlugrautur” for dessert. It’s not specifically icelandic, but it’s a scandinavian/nordic tradition. This christmas porridge has one almond, and the one person who finds an almond in their bowl gets a gift (“the almond gift”). Here’s an example of a recipe (I’ve personally tried this one and it was great): [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/60pFDJWX9qqjh5KzPLdV5z5/scandinavian-rice-pudding-with-hot-cherry-sauce](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/60pFDJWX9qqjh5KzPLdV5z5/scandinavian-rice-pudding-with-hot-cherry-sauce)

13. LOL imagine thinking Iceland has traditional vegetarian foods, when the land barely has any farmable land. The only thing you’ll really find is potatoes or carrots in meat recipes, you can try billberry or crowberry jam but you have to harvest those in late summer, on mountains or hillsides in the wild, they don’t sell them in stores.