Nigel Slater's salmon and dill soup, and tomato fish broth reci...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/28/nigel-sl...

Nigel Slater's salmon and dill soup, and

tomato fish broth recipes
It's the ultimate fish soup, Nordic style, but you don't need to cross the Baltic Sea to
make your own version
Nigel Slater
Sunday 28 November 2010 00.05GMT

If ever you nd yourself in Hakaniemi market in Helsinki at lunchtime you will do

well to join the local shoppers in a bowl of sh soup. If there are no tables left, then
perch on a stool at one of the indoor market's long counters, where you will be jostled
by shoppers laden with bags of smoked salmon and crispbreads the size of steering
wheels. The colour of a house brick, or ivory-hued and topped with a large sprig of
dill, these soups are made in the market in kitchens as small as abroom cupboard.
The best of these in a week's worth of eating was pale and mild a beautiful bowl of
salmon, swede and leek, its creamy depths spiked with lemon and tomato cubes.
The most welcome of the soups was based on the Finnish salmon-and-potato broth
lohikeitto, but had seen a bit of not-too-outlandish tinkering in the style of cauliower
and swede. There were a couple of scallops in there, too, possibly as much by
accident as design. The bowls here are deep and generously lled, and come with
slices of rye bread as sweet as gingerbread and a little of dish of butter scattered with
coarse akes of sea salt.
Market food is rarely disappointing, but here it is as good as I have ever tasted it, sold
side by side with stalls oering every cure of salmon there is, from beetroot to lemon
and pink peppercorn and the ever-popular gravadlax. You eat to the piercing whine of
the meat saw from the adjacent butcher's stall from where you can pick up your
marinated reindeer steaks. There are salted sh and cured herrings, too; ceramic
dishes of Jansson's temptation (anchovy and potato gratin) and shcakes the size of a
ball of bualo mozzarella. Yes, there is raw sh, though not as diverse a selection as
you might wish for, but sustainability is very much the word here.
If soup doesn't oat your boat, you could lunch on half-moon discs of rye crispbread
layered with smoked halibut or a slice of wild-mushroom tart made with the cepes
that are piled high on stalls aside lingonberries and rosy apples smaller than a golf
ball. (At the grand Caf Kamp they sometimes have deep bowls of cep soup with
rosemary)
Potatoes are a recurring ingredient in Finnish sh soups and they successfully saw o
the cold autumn wind that whistled through my thermals throughout my stay. You

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see whole stalls of them proudly labelled Nicola, Siikli and Van Gogh. These local
varieties are small and waxy and sit happily without turning to slurry in your soup.
Any of our small, yellow-eshed potatoes will work.
Another day, I came across a sh soup so dierent I could have been in another
country. Tomato-based and broth-like, it came with Finnish pike-perch, green olives,
mushrooms, and (something of a revelation to this cook) sliced gherkins the sassiest
addition I have ever had to a sh soup. Any associations with the Med were slashed
with the inclusion of the ever-present chopped dill (it is their parsley) and a
last-minute curl of soured cream. The eect was clean-tasting and piquant. In
trendier places sh soup isn't overlooked either, it will just come in a (very) much
smaller portion and with adegree or two more elegance. Either way, it's a bowl worth
the trip.

SALMON AND DILL SOUP

This is not the classic lohikeitto, but the delicious interpretation I ate in the market.
Serves 4 to 6.
onion 1 medium to large
leek 1
butter 50g
cauliower 500g
waxy potatoes 750g
swede 350g
water 1.25 litres
tomatoes 2 medium-sized
salmon llet 600g
cream 100ml
lemon juice to taste
dill a small bunch
buttered rye bread to serve
Peel the onion and roughly chop it. Shred and thoroughly rinse the leek. Melt the
butter in a deep, heavy-based pan and add the onion and leek. Let them cook over
alow-to-moderate heat, stirring regularly, so they do not colour. They should be soft
enough to crush between your nger and thumb, so take your time over this.
Bring a pan of water to the boil. Break the cauliower into large orets and cook them
in the boiling water until just tender. They will get a little more cooking when they are
added to the soup. Drain and set aside.
Peel and roughly dice the potatoes and swede. Add them to the onions and continue
cooking over a low-to-moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Pour in the
water, bring to the boil and lightly salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer and partially
cover with a lid. Chop the tomatoes and add them to the soup, followed a few

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minutes later by the cauliower.

When the swede and potatoes are fully tender, cut the salmon into large pieces and
lower into the soup. Season with pepper and let the salmon cook for about 5 minutes
until it is just cooked. Pour in the cream and mix in gently (you don't want the salmon
to break up). Stir in a little lemon juice to taste. Chop a couple of tablespoons of dill
and stir in, reserving some nice sprigs for the top. Ladle into bowls and serve with rye
bread.

TOMATO FISH BROTH

It was intriguing to come across a soup seasoned with sour ingredients. The version I
ate in Helsinki was made with what they call pike-perch, but any sustainable whiteeshed sh that holds together well can be used. Serves 4-6
onions 2 medium
olive oil
garlic 1 clove
tomatoes 5 medium-sized
fennel 1 small bulb
button mushrooms a couple of handfuls
water or vegetable stock 1 litre
gherkins 2 medium sized
olives 16
parsley a few sprigs
dill 3 bushy sprigs
white sh llets 500g
soured cream 4-6 tbsp
Peel and roughly chop the onions. Soften them in a little olive oil in a heavy-based
pan over a moderate heat. Peel and crush the garlic and add to the onions. Roughly
chop the tomatoes and add to the pan. Let them cook to a slush with the onions.
Finely slice the fennel and mushrooms and add to the pan. Cook for a few minutes
until the fennel has started to soften a little. Pour in the water or stock and bring to
the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, adding salt and black
pepper.
Slice the gherkins, stone and halve the olives, chop the parsley and dill and set aside.
Lower the sh into the stock and cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the sh is just opaque.
Stir the gherkins, olives, parsley and dill into the soup. Correct the seasoning and, if
you wish, add a little of the liquid from the gherkin jar. Ladle into warm bowls and
add a spoonful of soured cream to each.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or visit guardian.co.uk/prole/nigelslater

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