Plokkfiskur is Iceland's great comfort dish, born of thrift — leftover boiled fish and potato folded into a milky white sauce. Once humble use-it-up cooking, it is now served proudly in Reykjavík restaurants with dark rye.
Spoon up plokkfiskur — pale-cream casserole with golden top, fish flakes and potato chunks visible, mustard's subtle tang. Bite: fish delicate, potato soft and starchy, the béchamel binding everything in butter-and-milk richness, mustard providing background warmth. With dark rye bread, butter, and pickled beets, this is Reykjavik home cooking.
Béchamel binds the components. Flour roux thickens. Baking creates golden crust on top.
Variations
With cheese on top. With added cream. With dill. With smoked fish mixed in. With shrimp. Modern restaurant version with quail egg.
On the Palate
Where Plokkfiskur sits in the Icelandic flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
9 steps · 30 min active + 30 min waiting
- 110 min
Boil 700 g cod (or haddock) in salted water 8 min until just cooked. Drain; flake into chunks, removing bones.
Watch outPull the cod the second it turns opaque and flakes — a minute over and it goes dry and stringy in the bake.
- 227 min
Boil 600 g potatoes 25 min until tender. Peel; cube.
- 36 min
Sauté 1 chopped onion in 50 g butter in a heavy pot 5 min.
- 41 min
Sprinkle 50 g flour over; stir 1 min.
Watch outCook the flour into the butter a full minute until it smells nutty — skip it and the sauce tastes of raw flour.
- 56 min
Gradually whisk in 500 ml whole milk; cook 5 min until thickened.
Watch outAdd the milk in stages and keep whisking until it coats the spoon — pour it all at once and you get lumps.
- 61 min
Add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp Dijon mustard.
- 72 min
Fold in flaked fish and cubed potato.
- 816 min
Transfer to baking dish; bake at 200°C for 15 min until top is golden.
Watch outIt's done when the top sets into a golden crust — that browned skin is the best part.
- 91 min
Serve hot with rye bread, butter, and a salad of pickled beets.
