🇫🇮 Finland
KalakeittoFinnish fish soup
A Finnish fish soup of fish simmered with potatoes and onion in water or fish stock seasoned with whole allspice (and bay leaf, pepper and dill), sometimes finished with cream, eaten with rye bread and butter.
Origin and history
Kalakeitto is a Finnish fish soup of potatoes, onion and fish, seasoned with whole allspice and pepper, and made both clear and creamy. It regularly appears on lists of Finns' favourite foods, and Finland marks a national fish soup day on 12 February (Kaleva). The Visit Jyväskylä Region site shares the creamy version with dill, using salmon, pike-perch or burbot. The sources read give no date or origin for the dish.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 40 min
- Hands-on
- 20 min
Ingredients
- 1 litre4 1/4 cups fish stock, or water with a little salt
- 50 g2 oz yellow onion, finely chopped
- 5 whole allspice berries
- 5 black peppercorns
- 5 white peppercorns, optional; use 10 black if unavailable
- 2 bay leaves
- 500 g1.1 lb firm potatoes, peeled, cut in 1.5 to 2 cm / 3/4 in cubes
- 400 g14 oz fish fillet, salmon, pike-perch (zander), perch or burbot, skinned, cut in 2 to 3 cm / 1 in cubes
- 150 ml2/3 cup cream, optional; milk can replace it
- 1 dl1/2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
- sea salt, only if the stock is not salty
- rye bread and butter, to serve
Method
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1. Put the stock and chopped onion in a pot with the allspice, peppercorns and bay leaves.
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2. Bring to the boil and simmer until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes.
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3. Add the potato cubes, cover and cook until they are just tender, about 12 minutes.
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4. Add the fish cubes and simmer very gently until they turn mostly opaque, stirring carefully so the pieces stay whole.
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5. Pour in the cream, bring just to the boil, and taste for salt.
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6. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the dill.
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7. Serve hot with rye bread and butter.
Notes
- This is the creamy form from the Jyväskylä region (Leena Pölkki). The simple, clear form leaves out the cream: Alan Davidson's version boils fish pieces in salted water with onions and allspice.
- Other Finnish versions sweat leek in butter first and finish with milk or cream, or cook carrot, celery and leek and add milk, with the fish steeped off the heat. One MTV recipe adds a slice of rye bread at the end for aroma and lets the soup stand off the heat for about 10 minutes so the fish cooks gently; without cream the soup is lighter.
- Whole allspice and peppercorns are traditional; if using ground spices use less.
- Make-ahead: the base can be cooked a day ahead; add the fish and cream just before serving. A broth made from the fish trimmings is the base Finnish cooks recommend (Kaleva).
Adapted from Visit Jyväskylä Region, Finnish creamy fish soup (Leena Pölkki), Alan Davidson, North Atlantic Seafood (1980), Kalakeitto, MTV Uutiset, Kalakeitto (recipes with salmon), and Kaleva, Kalakeiton pohja on hyvässä liemessä.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.