Book of Days Tales

Icelandic Language Day (Icelandic: dagur íslenskrar tungu) is a festival celebrated on 16^th November each year in Iceland to celebrate the Icelandic language. This date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of the Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson.

In Autumn 1995, the Icelandic Minister of Education, Science and Culture, Björn Bjarnason, suggested that one day a year should be proposed to celebrate the Icelandic language, which has been well-preserved in its original form over the centuries, unlike most other languages; and the efforts to preserve this unique symbol of the country.

As such, on 16^th November, the Minister of Education, Science and Culture awards the Jónas Hallgrímsson Award to someone who has “in a unique way contributed to the Icelandic language.” The Minister may also visit a local area of Iceland’s schools and cultural institutions, for example in 2004 Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir visited Ísafjörður and in 2005 she visited Reykjanesbær.

Skyr is one of several national dairy products of Iceland, with the consistency of yogurt. Skyr is usually mixed with sugar and cream. A traditional Icelandic dish consists of roughly equal amounts of skyr and porridge. Skyr is often mixed with jam or fruit for a dessert, with prepared fish for dinner, or with cereals for breakfast. Though it comes in many flavors, pure Skyr can be used to make a créme brulée, to put an Icelandic twist on a French classic.

Ingredients

100 gm cream
100 gm pure Skyr
40 gm egg yolk
40 gm sugar
80 gm white chocolate
juice of ½ lime
1 vanilla pod

Instructions:

Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and put in a saucepan with the cream. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and add the Skyr.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and add to the warm skyr mixture.

Stir together the egg yolk and sugar and add to the skyr mixture along with the lime juice. Put into crème brulée ramekins and bake in a water bath at 250 F/120° C for 30 minutes. Cool.

Sprinkle with demerara sugar and melt the sugar with a crème brulée blowtorch (or pop under a very hot broiler).