If you are making these to follow dinner, I would not turn the oven to preheat until a short while before dinner so that you can put the puddings in the oven whilst you eat dinner.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease six dariole moulds. Break 30g of the chocolate into six pieces and set to the side.
Melt the remaining chocolate and the butter using your preferred method (I like using a double boiler). Whilst the chocolate and butter is melting, beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar. When the chocolate and butter is melted, remove from the heat and stir until it is smooth, allowing it to cool slightly.
Add the flour and chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture and stir well. Pour into the dariole moulds and into each mould push in one of the pieces of chocolate reserved at the start. Cook for 10 minutes or so. When cooked allow to stand in the moulds for 1 or 2 minutes during which you can melt the extra chocolate to serve with the puddings.
These were so yummy! Speaking of yummy I think I need to think of better words to describe food with other than just yummy 🙂 These were rich, decadent and full of chocolate 🙂
Can you say yummo? This recipe comes from the Nigella Lawson book Forever Summer(p143 under the title Saffron-Scented Chicken Pilaf). Nigella does not include the eschalots or peas but adds some chopped parsely at the end.
This book is chock full of delightful foods all fit for entertaining a small party or certain to have leftovers after feeding a family of four. I am going to provide the recipe as I made it but if you only want to make it for two or three people it is incredibly easy to just use one chicken breast and reduce the other ingredients.
Nutty Chicken Pilaf
3 chicken breast (about 750g) cut into thumb size pieces
couple of tablespoons Greek yoghurt (enough to coat the chicken)
juice of a lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1L chicken stock
15g butter
3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
600g basmati rice
5-6 cardamom pods, bruised
juice and zest of a second lemon
Place the diced chicken in a suitable sized container with the yoghurt, cinnamon and lemon juice. Give the mixture a good stir to ensure the chicken is covered and leave for 1hr to marinate. Meanwhile soak the saffron threads in the chicken stock (this is done to ensure that the dried saffron threads release all their flavour and colour).
In a hot pan, add 1 tablespoon of oil and in batches cook the marinated chicken after shaking off any excess yoghurt. As this is cooking you may need to add a second tablespoon of oil for later batches.
When you have the first batch of chicken cooking, start the rice cooking.
In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter and 1 tablespoon of the oil; add the rice, stirring it till it is nice and glossy. Pour in the chicken stock and saffron mixture; add the cardamom, lemon juice and zest. Place lid on pan, turn down to a low heat and leave for 10-15mins or so. After about 8 minutes or so add the peas and eschalots give it a stir and put the lid back on to leave it cooking.
When the rice is cooked, remove from the heat and stir through the cooked chicken.
Toss the cashews, almonds and pine nuts in an oil free pan over a medium heat until they colour and start to release their scent. Then stir them through the pilaf and top each plate with some pistachios.
July 7, 2005.
The first item on the agenda this morning was to ring Karl and wish him a happy 26th Birthday.
Today Margaret and Mum attempted to walk over Kaldbakur which at 998m is the highest mountain in the West Fjords. Matthew, Pabbi and I left Auðkúla at a leisurely pace and headed into to �safjörður for a poke round whilst the other two did their walk.
These two photos are of the entrance sign to Auðkúla and a look back towards Auðkúla and it’s fjord as we drove up over the mountains (number 1 and 2 on the map).
Pabbi showed us sights and memories of �safjörður and after a visit to the grocery store for some lunch supplies we made the drive back to Þingeyri to have lunch. I forgot to mark it on the map where we had lunch but if you look at the map we had lunch at the end of the fjord that Þingeyri is on. We left the road where it crosses the new bridge and drove down the road that my parents used to have to drive on to go to �safjörður. After eating lunch in the car at the end of the fjord as it had started to drizzle we headed up to the spot where we would be picking Mum and Margaret up from their walk, on the way though we pulled into have a look at some fish drying huts (number 4 on the map).
Once Mum and Margaret had arrived we headed into Þingeyri proper and started to drive and walk around. It was really quite sad to see Þingeyri as it is very run down compared to the photos of when my parents lived there in the late 70’s. There were buildings boarded up everywhere, rust was growing over the town and as a whole the village was a quiet place. The village had a population of around 450 when my parents lived there but like many other fishing villages of the West Fjords had largely declined and is now around 360.
We passed the building where Mum used to live, we visited the church where my parents were married, we went past the places where my parents used to work, we stopped by the house across the road from where my parents used to live to see if anyone was home. No-one was though, which was a bummer because the daughter of the family who live there was who I was named after. Well not Helen but my middle name Þura. The last stop was of course to stop by the house where my parents used to live.
As we visited places and ran into people, it was quite funny to watch the exchanges that would occur as Pabbi would recognise people who were children when he last saw them and adults now and they would take a little while before it would click as to who he was.
After we had spent our afternoon exploring and talking we left Þingeyri and drove to the youth hostel where we would be staying the night (Korpudalur, number 6 on the map).
It was quite serendipitous to visit Þingeyri on the day which Karl was born 26 years before and on that note I leave you with this image of the town which I took from a hill just above the town.
Today was a big day of driving with short stops on the side of the road to have a little poke around or fill up the petrol tanks. Whilst we only covered about 320km (which if we were doing on mainland Aus, would be 3.5hrs tops – long relativley straight roads at 100/110km/hr) for the day, because this wasn’t just Iceland roads but West Fjords roads; lots of hairpin bends, steep roads, gravel and slow speeds. It is
We bid farewell to Borgarnes, HjördÃs and her ultra cool house at 9am.
We hopped on the Ring Road and started heading “north” for a little while before we reached the turnoff to head to the West Fjords. We drove past Baula and enjoyed noticing the change in the country side as we changed lava periods and altidude.
Once we entered the West Fjords we basically kissed bitumen roads good bye and were on dirt for most of it – as the roads approached villages we would get bitumen but that was about it. To drive safely on these dirt roads means that you stop driving on the right and follow the wear patterns of where everyone else has driven as everything else is pretty loose gravel and that is not fun!
The maps show that in some cases the road follows the fjord round and in other times goes up over the fjord, that sounds all fine and dandy. However of course to gain the alitdute to go over the top of the fjord you have lots of hairpin bends and steep roads on gravel. It was all fun!!!
Just before the turn off out to Látrabjarg we reached Kleifaheiði which at about 520m presented Matthew and I with our first accessabile snow of the trip, so of course we jumped out of the car and ran over to have a scramble and a play. That was so cool!
After some more pottering around we reached our destination – BreiðavÃk, which is 12km from the Látrabjarg Cliffs and where we would be staying for the night. After settling in and having dinner we piled in the car and drove out to the cliffs. These cliffs are the most westerly point of Iceland and thus also the most western point of Europe.
The cliffs were quite possibliy one of my favourite places that we visited, there were birds everywhere and “Hello!, Check out the Puffins!”
These were all taken around the 85mm mark and as you can see from the next two photos just how close we were getting.
The puffins didn’t really do it for Matthew so he went back to the car to escape the weather (it was windy, cold and the clouds were kissing the grass) I was able to steal his gloves which if you look at in the above photo are Misfits skeleton gloves :).
The next two photos show a section of the cliffs which are 440m’ish above the Atlantic and one of the gulls I saw out there. THe puffins are birds that hang out at the top of the cliff near the grass whilst the other birds roost on the cliff face.
After we had taken enough photos we made the slow drive back to the hostel, for most of the drive back visibility was only a couple of meters in front of us due to the low hanging clouds. I had seen this sign for KeflavÃk on our way to the cliffs and decided on our way back I would have to get out and take a photo of a sign that points to a KeflavÃk that would not be the KeflavÃk that most people think of when they think of KeflavÃk as they would think of the town south of ReykjavÃk where the international airport and US Navy base is not a tiny hamlet on the West Fjords 🙂
It was twenty-seven years today,
Mamma brought you to the show
You’ve been going in and out of BNE
And you’re guaranteed to raise a smile
So may I introduce to you,
The act you’ve known for all these years
Karl Johann Palsson, the first-born
We’re so very proud of you
We hope you are too
Karl Johann Palsson, the first-born
Sit back and let the evening go
Karl Johann Palsson, Karl Johan Palsson
Karl Johann Palsson, the first-born
It’s wonderful you are there
It’s certainly a thrill.
Happy Birthday Big Brother.
I was speaking to Karl on MSN the other day and asked him for the sake of it what sort of cake he wanted for his birthday and he answered with Lemon Poppy Seed Cake which was quite a surprise as I had bought lemons and poppys eeds the other day as I wanted to try my hand at making a Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. Karl may not be on the right side of the globe to enjoy his cake but still when Mum and I cut the cake we had a candle and wished you happy birthday.
I used a recipe from Southern Living to which I added more poppy seeds and more lemon juice.
225g cooking margarine, softened
2.5 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk or sour cream (I used half and half as I had some left over sour cream to use up)
2 tsp vanilla
zest and juice of 1 large lemon
3-4 tbs poppy seeds
1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Cream margarine and sugar and then mix in the eggs one or two at a time.
3. Mix in the flour and baking soda and the buttermilk/sour cream in alternate parts until just combined.
4. Mix in vanilla, poppy seeds, lemon juice and zest
5. Cook in a 24cm spring form cake tin for 1hr 30 minutes (The recipe on Southern Living has directions for all sorts of other sizes but basically just use your common sense)
Lemon Cream Cheese Icing
zest of one medium sized lemon
juice of half above lemon
dash of vanilla
2 or 3 tbs caster sugar
200g or so cream cheese softened.
1. Cream together cream cheese and sugar.
2. Add the lemon zest, juice and vanilla and beat till smooth
3. Ice the cake
I personally am not a fan of sugary sweet icing, it should be accompany the cake and not overbear it, however if you like sweet icing just add more sugar.
And now for two other items of news.
I am tickled pink to announce that my uni results came out for the semester the other day day and I recieved FOUR DISTINCTIONS and ONE CREDIT!!! (Marks go High Distinction, Distinction, Credit, Pass, Pass Conceded and Fail)
If anyone can pick the uncanny link between the dates of Karl’s birthday and my birthday there is a piece of cake waiting here for you.
July 1-3, 2005 ættarmót (Clan Gathering) of the decendants of Jóns Einarssonar and Jóhönnu ÞórdÃsar Jónsdóttir at Reykjaskóla, Hrútafjörði.
Jón and Jóhanna were my great, grand parents and are long since dead. Tannstaðabakki is a farm just up the road from Reykjaskóla which has been in our family for at least the last three hundred years.
It is where Pabbi lived on and off for the first 14 years of his life and it is where Amma and my grandfather, a USA Army Corporal courted.
After arriving at Reykjaskóla we were shown our rooms in the “Pall Palsson Wing” which is where those descendants of my father who were not camping stayed. This meant that we were in and out of each others rooms and running amok in the hallway.
After settling in we drove up to Tannstaðabakki where a night of food, drink and cheer was waiting, set up in the barn were trestle tables and outside a BBQ was just getting fired up. It didn’t take long after we arrived to find Toti and his troop and I set off with Silja and Birta as they showed me the things they had discovered like the dog with young litter which was getting a lot of attention from all the youngsters or the horses that they liked to pat. A little while later a joyous sound rang out when Soley arrived and we gave each other a big hug.
After Mum, Matthew and I had been introduced to a variety of people and short conversations of English were spoken, the adults grouped off and started talking in Icelandic to each other and Mum, Matthew, Soley and I headed down to the “beach” and explored, played and had our own merriment.
Once the sun had started to move away and the wind started to blow across the water we headed back up to the barn to spend the night humming along to Icelandic Folk Songs whilst the rest of the crew sang, smiled and had fun. Since Mum, Matthew and I aren’t exactly up with the whole Icelandic thing, most of the songs we stood round watching. There were some songs however which were ones we knew in English, so we could sing along to those ones. More often the case was that I buzzed about taking photos and Matthew and Mum stood round talking.
Day 8 – July 2, 2005
The night before Skúli had passed around word that if any one who was interested could come watch the milking of the cows in the morning, so of course Mum, Pabbi and I took up the offer and actually were the only ones and arrived before the milking had started so we went for a walk along the fjord as Pabbi pointed out the places he had played as a young fella and what had changed over the years.
After a while we walked back up the farm and chatted to Skúli and Guðrún as they went about the dairy business.
Once we got back to Reykjaskóla and had our breakfast where Mum was just as excited as she had been since our first trip to the grocery store at the chance to have Sour Milk on her cereal (much better than buttermilk). Mum and Pabbi headed off to chat to people I guess and Matthew probably was sitting somewhere listening to his MiniDisc player I headed off to act like an 8yr old with my nieces. Taking silly photos, playing soccer and attempting to play croquet, passing the camera round to whom ever wanted to take photos with it; Silja, Birta, Nonni(?) and who knows who else – it is not me, my camera and my life but us, my camera and our life 🙂
Around midday everyone headed up to Tannstaðabakki, where we were told about some of the things that they are now involved in with raising chickens, running school tours and the weather station etc. Karl had come up from Reykjavik by now so it was fun to have him around to join in on the fun and games. Birta had taken my camera again by now and was no longer just taking photos of people in “Team Red” but all the “Teams”.
After the tour was over we headed back to Reykjaskóla where Matthew and Karl played foxtail with one of the bags of clothes that we had left with him to bring up. Considering the things those two have played foxtail with over the years (old Christams trees etc) it was no surprise when they started this up. As we carried stuff in from his car, Matthew had now grabbed my camera and started taking some photos.
Once we were all settled we went over to the Reykir Folk Museum which is just near the school and suprise suprise Guðrún was on the door, collecting admission and handing out guides. This museum is chock full of items from the local area including quite a few items that were made by my great, great grandfather Einar Skúlason in the mid to late 1800’s.
It also includes a boat which was made in 1875 from drift wood for use a shark fishing boat in Winter and was in use until 1915, as well as a tiny boat that came in two halves for easy transport on horses, as well as a couple of reconstructed interiors of 1800’s homes.
After the museum, Matthew and I headed off to the games room with a whole troop of people from the “Pall Palsson Wing” to play air-hockey, table-tennis, mini-golf and other assorted games that we came up with what we found around.
However the sun was beckoning and after looking at the egg laying hens; Soley, Birta and Jökull decided to make a dam in the little stream that came from a hot spring up the hill a bit; I joined in, offering advice and warming my arms and legs in the warm water.
Once the dam had been built to the best of our capabilities it was time for all the kidlets and adults to be rounded up to get dressed up for the dinner. We were all on our best behaviour as we found our place card and listened to speeches that we had only a few ideas as to their content. After filling up on a wide array of foods including some very yummy brussel sprouts, I moved over to the table where Matthew was sitting and for some reason we started building little boats out of the place-cards and using wax from the tea lights to give them weight. After we had each made one or two we raced as slowly as we could down to the stream to launch our boats. Along the way we managed to draw the attention of some other kidlets and Karl and before long we had raced back up stairs to the dining room to scrounge more place-cards and tea lights to make more boats to have an all out boat race.
Before too long though the boats started to get shipwrecked on the banks and had to be decommissioned as race boats. Then we moved down to the shore where there were more kidlets playing in the late night sun; skimming rocks, playing round the whale bone, digging and having fun.
This next photo is one I really like because there is my shadow as I take the photo, Karl and Matthew in the middle finding suitable skimming rocks and Hafthor and Soley are in the background heading off home.
Once the youngest kidlets were tucked up in bed, it was time for the mice to come out and play 🙂
Skúli been a man of many talents had called up his band to play for a barn dance where we had fun drinking and watching people dancing before joining in on the chicken dance and the hokey pokey, watching Toti and Anna show off their dancing skills as they tore up the gym floor with their fancy footwork and seeing my parents the happiest I had seen them in ages dancing together on the gym floor. Once we were all tired out from dancing or watching we headed outside to stand round with a few drinks sharing stories and making jokes.
Day 9 – July 3, 2005
This was a lazy day, we packed up our gear and headed back to Reykjavik to pick up Aunty Margaret from the airport and Karl’s car before driving back to Borgarnes to spend the night with HjördÃs who had prepared a stellar lasagne for tea and to do more washing in preparation for the start of our trip round Iceland in the morning.
