Plokkfiskur

Ingredients

The fish and potato

• 600 gcod or haddock
• skinless fillet
• 800 gpotatoes
• scrubbed
• salt

The white sauce

• 60 gbutter
• 60 gplain flour
• 600 mlmilk
• 1large onion, finely chopped
• white pepper
• salt

Sometimes added

• 1 teaspooncurry powder
• a spoon of mustard
• chopped chives
• a little cream

To serve

• dark rye bread
• rúgbrauð
• and butter

Directions

1. Fold it together rather than mashing hard. Leave real texture in the mash. Butter and flour are cooked together. It thickens into a smooth sauce. Cook the flour in the butter first. Two minutes of cooking removes that.
2. Add the milk gradually to the roux. Whisk every addition in fully. That prevents any lumps entirely. Pull any bones out with tweezers. It gives a mild warm background. Boil the potatoes in their skins. Skin-on boiling stops them waterlogging. Boil them until tender to a knife. They should be cooked but not falling apart. Take them off the heat slightly firm. Peeling them is done while still hot.
3. Peel them as soon as you can handle them. The skins slip off warm potatoes easily. Rub them off with your thumb instead. Poach the fish gently in salted water. Bring the water to a bare simmer. Do not let the water boil at all. Check it rather than timing it blindly. Judging it takes a proper fork test. Take it off as soon as it flakes. Lift the cooked fish out carefully.
4. Let it drain and cool a little. Flake the fish with your fingers. Pull out any pin bones you find. Discard any skin that remains. Melt the butter in a wide pan. Add the chopped onion in to it. Cook it for about eight minutes. The onion should soften completely. Cook it gently rather than fast. Sprinkle the flour over the onion.
5. Stir it in and cook it for two minutes. Stir it constantly for those two minutes. Add all of the milk gradually. Whisk it in fully as you go along. Add it in just a little at a time. Whisk every addition in fully. That prevents any lumps entirely.
6. Let it simmer down and thicken. Give it about five full minutes. Season it with salt and white pepper. Use white pepper if you have it. Stir a little curry powder into the sauce. Add it with the flour if using it.
7. Add the flaked fish to the sauce. Add the peeled potatoes to it. Break the potatoes up roughly by hand. Do not mash them smooth at all. Fold everything together gently. Fold rather than stirring hard. Turn it over with a large spoon. Stop while flakes and chunks show.
8. Let it warm through over a low heat. It should be piping hot to serve. Stir it gently as it warms through. Do not let it catch on the bottom.
9. Add a splash of milk if it is stiff. It should hold its shape on a spoon. Taste it and adjust the salt as needed. The dish tastes flat without enough. Spoon it out into warm deep bowls. Scatter chopped chives over it. Serve dark rye bread and butter. Both of those are done in Iceland.

Technique

• Cod fillets can carry fine pin bones that are easy to miss, and in a mashed dish a bone is hidden where you cannot see it. Feel through the fish flake by flake as you pull it apart and pull any bones out with tweezers — that checking matters more here than in a whole fillet.
• Fold everything together gently rather than stirring hard, and stop while flakes of fish and chunks of potato are still clearly visible. It is a rough mash rather than a puree, and a smooth one loses the whole character.
• Poach the fish at a bare simmer rather than boiling, which breaks it apart, and take it off as soon as it flakes since overcooked cod goes dry and tough and carries on cooking off the heat.

Substitutions

• Haddock stands in for cod. Boil the potatoes in their skins, since peeled ones absorb water and give a watery mash, and take them off slightly firm.
• Curry powder is a genuine Icelandic variation that arrived through trade and became common; add it with the flour so it cooks out, since raw curry powder tastes dusty. Many households add it and many do not.

Variations

• Add the milk to the roux gradually, whisking each addition fully in, which prevents lumps; adding it all at once gives them.
• White pepper is traditional here, being milder and less visible — black flecks look wrong in a white mash.
• It was built on leftover boiled fish and potato, both common in an Icelandic kitchen shaped by scarcity where nothing edible was wasted; it is now cooked from fresh fish too and both versions are genuinely made.

History

Boiled fish mashed with potato, onion and béchamel, a thrift dish built on leftovers and eaten with dark rye bread.

Frequently asked questions

What is Plokkfiskur?

Plokkfiskur is a main from Iceland: comforting mash of cod, potatoes, onions in white sauce. Boiled fish mashed with potato, onion and béchamel, a thrift dish built on leftovers and eaten with dark rye bread.

How long does Plokkfiskur take to make?

Plokkfiskur takes 20 minutes of preparation and 35 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Plokkfiskur?

Yes, within limits. Haddock stands in for cod. Boil the potatoes in their skins, since peeled ones absorb water and give a watery mash, and take them off slightly firm. Curry powder is a genuine Icelandic variation that arrived through trade and became common; add it with the flour so it cooks out, since raw curry powder tastes dusty. Many households add it and many do not.

What is the most important thing to get right in Plokkfiskur?

Fold it together rather than mashing hard. Leave real texture in the mash. Butter and flour are cooked together. It thickens into a smooth sauce. Cook the flour in the butter first. Two minutes of cooking removes that.