The 25th edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair opens at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on Thursday with a dedicated cookery section that is the biggest and best yet. From classes led by top international chefs to sessions by Scandinavian celebrities and chefs from Iceland, which is the country of focus, an exhaustive programme of workshops for children and an overall focus on healthy eating, there’s plenty for foodies of all ages.
Iceland on your plate
Icelandic food is rooted in Nordic cuisine, with an emphasis on lamb, dairy and fish. Smoked food is prominent — including the ever-popular smoked lamb. Icelandic lambs are allowed to roam freely, eating grass and a variety of herbs, which imparts a distinct, herb-infused flavour not found in lamb from other parts of the world.
Ebba Gudny Gudmundsdottir, a primary-school teacher and nutrition expert who is a self-taught chef and host of the popular Icelandic TV show Homemade with Ebba, will be at the fair's Show Kitchen, which runs until Wednesday, to host sessions on healthy cooking and clean eating. Her book What Should I Feed my Baby is a best-seller in Iceland.
“Much of the taste of our food’s tradition comes from the preservation methods used before refrigerators — pickling in fermented whey or brine, drying and smoking, for instance,” says Gudmundsdottir. Apart from the meat, traditional Icelandic foods include skyr, a cultured dairy product, kleinur (fried pastry) and rugbraud, a dark, dense, slightly sweet rye bread.
“We still eat a lot of rugbraud in Iceland,” says Gudmundsdottir. “It was baked by burying the dough in special, wooden casks in the ground close to a hot spring and picking it up the next day. It’s delicious with a lot of butter.” It’s hard to grow produce in such a cold climate, but with the introduction of clean energy and greenhouses, Iceland has been able to extend its short growing season. Popular harvests include crowberries, blueberries, rhubarb, wild mushrooms, thyme and dried seaweed.
“We have increased our vegetable consumption considerably, which is great. I think we still eat way too much sugar, but Icelanders in general are quite health-conscious.”
Three Icelandic foods to try
Skyr: A high-protein, cultured dairy product similar to strained yogurt, it has been part of Icelandic cuisine for more than 1,000 years and is traditionally served with cold milk and sugar.
Slatur: The two types — blood sausage and liver sausage — are made from sheep innards. These are similar to British black pudding and Scottish haggis, although the spices are different and slatur has a smoother texture.
Laufabraud: Fried, thin, wheat bread, typically eaten around Christmas.
• Ebba Gudny Gudmundsdottir will be cooking healthy Icelandic dishes at the Show Kitchen on Thursday, May 7, at 4.30pm and 8.30pm
sjohnson@thenational.ae