Icelandic Skyr Butter

Captain’s Log: Covid Date 16, we have been isolating for over two weeks at this point, leaving home only to exercise or brave the grocery store. Supplies are plentiful, if not up to usual standards. Internet service remains spotty, one puzzle has been completed, zero books read, and-

Ok, I’ll stop, because if you didn’t also decide that now was the perfect time to finally watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, then you won’t find my Picard impression entertaining out of context. I just wrote it and I’ll admit it wasn’t funny even in context. But, side note: I’m 3.5 seasons into the show, and wow the Enterprise crew encountered a lot of strange alien viruses, didn’t they?

Star Captains, they’re just like us!

Anyway, hello from Social Distancing 2020! I figured now is a good time to finally tell you about some delicious things I cooked and baked last year, since I don’t really have the excuse anymore of being too busy to write. None of us are really too busy these days, unless of course, you work on the frontlines in a medical, food delivery, grocery, or other capacity. In which case, THANK YOU. It really can’t be said enough (and honestly probably isn’t).

If you couldn’t tell from my last post, I am carb-loading through this emotional roller coaster and I think we should all give ourselves permission to do so.

Speaking of carbs, here’s a fun story! Claire read my list of what I’ve been eating and found it so hilarious she decided to Face-Time me in the middle of the day on Monday to tell me. You know what’s really great for stress right now? Unexpected, out of the ordinary calls from your sister in the middle of the day. Especially when her first words to you are “I’m crying!”

Turns out, she was crying from laughing so hard at the image of me stuffing my face with banana bread, so I promptly hung up on her and went back to the work meeting I had paused because oh my god my sister is calling she never does that I hope everything is ok.

Ahem. So, yes, the carb-loading. I am not the only one doing this. How do I know? Well, my local grocery store’s shelves were absolutely bare of almost all flour today when I finally got inside. There was not a single bag of flour to be found except the flour alternatives. Apparently this very real pandemic has cured the gluten one.

But the people are baking!

Baked goods often need butter, don’t they? So, almost a year later, now seems like the perfect time to share my version of what I think of as Icelandic butter.

Is that what they call it in Iceland? I don’t know, but my sister, Mom and I encountered it at nearly every meal we ate last May, on a trip that feels like a lifetime ago now. From our first bread basket at the Blue Lagoon to our last dinner, we were served fluffy, whipped butter, lightened with skyr (Icelandic yogurt), and garnished with salt. We had many fantastic meals on that trip, but I became a little obsessed with this butter! I knew I would make it as soon as I returned home. I even bought a container of birch salt to bring home with me for the ultimate, authentic garnish.

So, if you are filling your time these days with more baking than usual, try this butter! It’s fantastic slathered on a plain piece of good bread, or I’m sure would be great on muffins or pancakes (maybe sans finishing salt) or on cornbread or banana bread. Anything you want to spread some butter on, try this!

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Whipped Skyr Butter

For the butter:

• 4 tbs European style salted butter, softened

• 2 tbs plain skyr, or other plain, thick yogurt (preferably full fat), room temperature

• finishing salt, such as Maldon, or a flavored variety (optional)

• bread, for serving

1. In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a mixer, add the softened butter and skyr. If mixing by hand, mash the two together until combined, then vigorously whip to incorporate as much air as possible. If using a stand mixer, whip with the whisk attachment until the mixture is light and fluffy and very, very pale.

2. To serve, scoop butter into a serving dish and sprinkle with finishing salt, if using. Serve generously with good, crusty bread.

Notes:

• You want the skyr and the butter to be roughly the same temperature, or for the skyr to at least not be cold from the fridge, so it doesn’t harden the butter when you mix the two together.

• Butter can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks. It will harden when chilled but should soften to a light, fluffy consistency again when brought to room temperature.

• Want to use up the rest of your skyr? Try it in pancakes!

Things are terrible. Eat the doughnut.

Six months ago, I made a batch of old fashioned doughnuts, and they were awesome. I thought about why I love this kind of doughnut, and I realized the reason they hold such a comfort for me. Maybe it was the sugar haze, or maybe I’d just had a particularly stressful week, but I decided that I would write the story of a joyless, soul-numbing job I used to have. A tale of boredom soothed by a weekly Starbucks run.

A story of a privileged person in absolute despair that she earned enough money to pay all her bills, but didn’t feel complete.

Yeah, I’ll spare us all.

Look, that feeling is real. I know. My friends know. Your friends know. There is a special kind of depression that comes from performing a job that requires you to hold a degree you paid $80,000 for, yet seems to only require the mental capabilities of an eighth grader. There are books about this. Bullshit Jobs is a great one.

But now, as the global economy grinds to a halt, and millions face unemployment, poverty, and the prospect of contracting a terrifying disease just as your locality runs out of hospital beds? Well, I sound like a piece of shit, don’t I?

So I won’t finish that profound essay, ok? I’m doing us all a favor, really.

I’ll just talk about the carbs. Because you know what? I think we all can use some carbs right now. How do I know? In the last week I’ve eaten: one loaf of banana bread, one 9-inch cornbread, half a baked ziti, a box of pop tarts, one full size bag of chips, one quart of banana ice cream, one half of a blueberry muffin cake, and half a recipe of homemade Hamburger Helper, and then washed all that down with 2 bottles of wine.

Obviously I am eating some feelings right now.

So if you are in the same situation as me, cooped up, anxious and nervous and scared and weirdly craving all the things you usually save for holiday splurging, rather than your daily elevensies, well, I have the perfect treat for you.

The sour cream doughnut!

Yes. Trust me.

I feel like sour cream doughnuts get a bad rap. And I kind of get it! They are dense, and cakey, and very, very sweet. They are generally the exact opposite of everything we have been taught to revere in our doughnuts (or donuts) by the likes of Doughnut Plant and Union Square Donuts, purveyors of lush, fluffy, yeasted confections that taste like frosted air held together by carbs. I mean that as a compliment.

But sour cream doughnuts are not that. They also go by Old Fashioned Doughnuts, and maybe old fashioned is ok, and we can learn from our elders.

(Let the record show there are bad sour cream donuts. Too big, too gummy, too sweet. I’m not celebrating those. They know who they are.)

But a good sour cream doughnut? A good sour cream donut is just the right density, and sweet, and glazed, and best of all, has these crispy ridges that you can break off and munch on as you take your time, meditating on the doughnut, forgetting everything terrible in the world. 

These are that kind of doughnut, and this recipe makes enough for you to share with whomever you are social distancing with, be it family, roommates, or spouse. Or kids! I hear the kids are bored! Put them to work dipping doughnuts and promise them sugar. That might help!

And if you think I’m crazy to tell you to muster the energy and positive attitude to attempt frying pastries while trying to survive a pandemic, well, then just go buy some doughnuts, ok?

Because I didn’t tell you my stupid story about a job I had 5 years ago, but I will tell you what I know to be true.

Sometimes you just need a doughnut. And it will, for a brief moment, make you feel better.

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PB&J Glazed Old Fashioned Doughnuts

As you can see from the photos, I made these back in September when concord grapes were in season. You won’t find them now, so I’ve just written the recipe to use the bottled stuff.

Adapted from ChefSteps. The original recipe is in grams, so that’s what I used to measure, with a baking scale. I didn’t convert into cups or other measures except for a few ingredients.

For the doughnuts:

• 120 g sugar

• 45 g egg yolks (from 2.5-3 large eggs)

• 18 g unsalted butter, softened

• 190 g sour cream (3/4 c), kept at room temp for a bit

• 300 grams all purpose flour

• 7.5 g baking powder

• 6 g kosher salt

For the glaze:

• 50 g concord gape juice (unsweetened if you can find it)

• 2 g salt

• 200 g powdered sugar

For dusting the doughnut holes:

• 2 tbs kinako powder or powdered peanut butter

• 1 tbs sugar

1. Make the doughnuts: Oil a large bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, egg yolks, and butter and mix on high, with the paddle attachment, for 2 minutes, until lightened and the volume of the mixture starts to increase. Add in the sour cream, and mix together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes more.

2. Meanwhile, sift together the remaining dry ingredients and add to the mixer on low speed, one spoonful at a time, just until everything is incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

3. Prepare to roll and cut the doughnuts: line a baking sheet with parchment, oil or butter the parchment, and set aside. Dust a large surface with flour, dust the top of the dough with flour, and then transfer to the floured surface.

4. Roll the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Brush excess flour from the dough and cut into 3-inch circles. You can use a doughnut cutter for this, or do what I did, which is use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut the large rounds, then use a smaller, 1/2-1 inch circle to cut out holes (a large piping tip works excellently for this). Transfer your cut circles to the parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for another 30 minutes. You should be able to get about 6-7 doughnuts with holes.

5. While dough chills again, heat your frying oil and make the glaze. Heat 2 inches of frying oil in a large, heavy sided pot to 340 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk all glaze ingredients together until completely smooth, and set aside.

6. When your oil is at temperature, start frying! Cook each doughnut for 40 seconds, then flip and cook 80 seconds more, flip again and fry another 80 seconds. You are looking for the traditional crack to form around the top of the doughnut, giving you those crispy ridges! When doughnuts are golden, transfer to a rack to drain. Don’t forget to fry the holes too!

7. Let cool for 15 minutes before glazing, then dip each doughnut in the glaze and set on a wire rack to set. Stir together your sugar mixture for the holes, and roll each one in the mixture to coat well. Serve and enjoy!

Notes:

• I call for either kinako powder or peanut butter powder for the holes. I wanted to riff on pb&j, but I didn’t have any peanut butter, but I did have some kinako powder left from my matcha mochi donuts. The nuttiness of the kinako paired excellently with the concord grapes, but if you want to go traditional, us the peanut butter powder, which is now sold in many grocery stores or easy to find online.

• You can also sub milk for the concord grape juice and make plain vanilla glazed for the truly traditional take.

• When frying, I find it easiest to flip the doughnuts with either chopsticks or the ends of wooden spoons. For removing from the hot oil, I recommend investing in a spider or using a slotted spoon.

Dubai & Abu Dhabi

Dubai was never high up on my list of places to visit. It’s always been described to me as “the Las Vegas of the Middle East” as if that explained every reason to go there. I don’t even want to go to the Las Vegas of America, so this was never much to recommend it to me.

But, like most lists we make, my travel list gets impacted by external factors. Climate change moved places like the Great Barrier Reef, Glacier National Park and Dry Tortugas up the list, while war bumped Syria off it completely. A work trip to London last year unexpectedly moved Europe up the queue, and then in 2018 when my Dad decided he wasn’t retired after all and went to work in Abu Dhabi, suddenly the UAE was high priority.

We knew we’d have to go over the Thanksgiving break if my sister, brother-in-law and I were all to go together, so we had a year to plan. We spent most of that time debating which European city to layover in, to avoid the brutal haul of a direct flight to Dubai. We settled on London, out of convenience and uh, semi-professional interest, and then started wondering what to do in Dubai.

With a full year of anticipation, it’s hard to overstate how much I was looking forward to this trip by the time it came around, and unlike any place I’ve traveled recently, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Most of the adulation lavished on Dubai centers around the extremeness of everything and the nightlife, but we weren’t planning to go out to fancy dinners or clubbing, so how much would be left over to enjoy?

As it turns out, quite a bit! Dubai is tall buildings, that is true, and it can feel like a place manufactured for leisure and nothing more. But it is also the desert and traditional Arabic cuisine and malls and beaches, and the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is one of the most stunning places I’ve ever walked through.

Some recommendations to check out if you go:

Go up in the Burj Khalifa!

Yes, do it, and this is one place to spend your money on the VIP experience. Our tickets took us up to the 148th floor, where we were greeted with coffee, tea, and sweets, and almost no other people. After enjoying the lounge and the view up there, we took the elevator down to the 125th floor and the experience went from “amazing” to “get me out of here” almost immediately. That floor was swarming with crowds, photographers trying to take your photo, and girls lined up to take selfies with various Instagram installations. It was honestly kind of hellish, and maybe worst of all, after being up 148 stories, the view from 125 floors up didn’t feel all that impressive anymore! Brains and perspective are weird.

Go on a desert safari!

We booked a safari that included hotel transfer to the desert, where we then piled into a vintage Land Rover and drove through the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve before watching a falcon show and feasting on traditional Bedouin food. Claire and Ryan rode a camel and I tried to remember how to smoke hookah. If you do a safari, I recommend the ones run by the Conservation Reserve, as they only focus on events native to the UAE (so no belly dancing) and they skip the dune bashing entry to the desert, which, while probably fun, wreaks havoc on the dunes.

Go to the beach!

Dubai has many public beaches and even more beach resorts, but you don’t need to do either to enjoy the beach, especially if you are apprehensive about conforming correctly to local dress codes. I discovered Riva Beach Club, an inexpensive day club where you can go hang out under an umbrella, with drinks, in a calm lagoon for less than the price of a cocktail at a fancy bar. Wednesdays are Ladies Day too, which gets you cheaper admission and some free drinks.

Eat locally!

You can go to Dubai and eat at exactly the same places you’ll find at home. At the mall I saw a range of American fast food places, and then there are the global elite chains like Nobu, and every hotel has representative examples of French, Italian, Japanese, etc. But what is the fun of traveling if you are going to eat something you could find anywhere else? While I’ll admit the food in our hotel was pretty excellent, my favorite meal of all was the first breakfast we ate in Dubai, at the Arabian Tea House. This place is renown for its breakfast, and you can choose platters of Arabian, Egyptian, or Emirati fare. We went with Egyptian and Emirati. If you don’t know the joy that is eating falafel and fries for breakfast, you should go here and find out!

Go to the mall!

Malls in America are dying. Malls in Dubai are life.

In a country where the average summer temperature defies human habitation, the air conditioned malls are a refuge, and simply calling them malls doesn’t do justice to what you will find in them. Yes, there’s shopping, and yes, you might spot an Emirati in traditional dress waiting at the valet with 20 bags from Hermes, but for the rest of us, there’s the Gap, and so much more. At the Dubai Mall, spot a shark swimming by in the giant Aquarium across from Aldo, go ice skating, eat next to an indoor waterfall, or venture outside to watch a fountain show. And then, at the Mall of the Emirates, you can go skiing in an indoor ski slope kept at a cool 25 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s trippy as hell, but so fun, and a two-hour ski pass, including equipment and clothing rentals, costs less than $30. Tahoe? I don’t know her.

Do Brunch!

Forget everything I said about not eating what you can find everywhere else! On Fridays in the UAE, they brunch. And when they brunch, they brunch hard. I never understood until we arrived at Al Qasr that what we call brunch in America is just a peasant’s humble breakfast. This was an event, where they hand you prosecco as you walk in the door, offer you more prosecco upon seating 2 seconds later, and then turn you loose upon a buffet spanning three restaurants and every type of world cuisine. There was paella, pork ribs, traditional English Sunday roast complete with Yorkshire puddings, Indian street food, fois gras, a seafood and sushi spectacle, mezze, cheese and cured meats, lamb chops, prime rib, dumplings, fried rice, mashed potatoes and more that I probably didn’t even notice. And then pies, cakes, tarts, candy, ice cream, cookies, chocolate gardens, chocolate fountains, and other desserts galore. And oh, should you be thirsty, there’s the previously mentioned prosecco, but also wheelbarrows full of beer bottles, an Aperol spritz bar, a mojito bar, a gin and tonic bar, and my favorite, a bloody mary bar. I walked in wondering how we were possibly going to spend three hours at brunch and left understanding that Dubai brunch is a marathon, not a sprint, and I think, requires just about the same amount of training to truly do it right.

See the flowers!

Ok, this one is a little harder to enthusiastically recommend, but if you are in Dubai between November and May, the Miracle Garden is wacky and interesting and felt distinctly local in a way other attractions didn’t. But…it is weird! Imagine a small theme park that is entirely a display built of standard garden flowers, inexplicably (and somehow legally?) featuring a Disney theme. We walked in the gates and were immediately confronted with a giant Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and more Disney-ish elements like tea cups, castles, and dancers. My favorite structure was the Emirates plane, which I think was only there as sponsor advertising, but looked the most natural, as if a plane crash-landed in a meadow and was gradually overtaken by the flora.

Hang out at the hotel!

This isn’t usually on my recommendation list when traveling, and it definitely depends on which hotel you are staying at, but in Dubai the hotels and resorts seemed to exist as a separate (and more permissive) world within the larger city. Our hotel touted itself as the tallest in the world (actually number 2) and the views from our rooms were stunning, but the view from the hotel bar on the 72nd floor was even more spectacular. But the hotel was also great as a place to just relax in between sightseeing. We hung outd by the pool bar in view of the Burj Khalifa before Thanksgiving dinner, made full use of the executive lounge most days for breakfast, and the night my brother-in-law and I went to the bar it was ladies night, so I got handed a sheaf of free drink tickets when I walked into the elevator.

Go to Abu Dhabi!

Dubai gets a lot of the attention, but Abu Dhabi has some sights to offer too! We spent an afternoon there, and the Grand Mosque alone was worth the trip. Unless you are covered from ankles to elbows, women will have to don the cover-ups provided. I wore a floor length dress with full sleeves to mid-upper arm and still had to change.

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Dressing for Dubai

Dubai offers a few challenges for wardrobe, especially as a woman. It’s hot, so you need to take that into account, and of course, it’s better to err on the side of modesty. But for the most part, I didn’t notice any problems in touristy areas, and saw a range of dress from traditional to booty shorts, so wear what makes you comfortable and just be aware of local expectations. I stuck to maxi dresses and jumpsuits for the most part, and carried a scarf to cover my shoulders when needed and provide warmth in the over-air conditioned buildings.