Finnish cuisine is simple and straightforward. Lohikeitto, a soup made with salmon, is no exception. It’s all about the ingredients, each of which must be clearly discernible, resulting in something truly special. Not loud, but quiet. Lohikeitto is the perfect dish for the cold season.
Anyone familiar with the concept of chowder as a thick fish soup will recognise this in lohikeitto. We love this dish as a prime example of the Nordic philosophy of cooking: few ingredients, clear flavours, no frills.
Potatoes, carrots and leeks are essential ingredients in lohikeitto. Onions and even garlic are not essential, but can be added according to personal taste. We use all of these ingredients. Some of the root vegetables can be replaced with celeriac, parsley root or parsnips, but for us, less is more.
Melt butter in a tall saucepan over medium heat until it foams. Then add finely diced onion, garlic and leek, using only the white and light green parts. Here are some tips on how to best clean leeks.
After 4 minutes, during which you stir repeatedly, add the potatoes and carrots. Peel both and cut them into pieces that fit easily on a spoon. We prefer to use a Japanese technique, which produces more attractive pieces than cubes.
Sauté the hard vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you want to refine the flavour at this point, add a little white wine and allow it to boil off. However, we also recommend adding Noilly Prat.
Noilly Prat is a high-quality French vermouth that is often used in haute cuisine to refine sauces, soups and, above all, fish dishes due to its complex aromas. We always have a bottle next to the stove, but we almost never drink it.
So we add a little of the vermouth and then some white wine. This creates immense aromas.
When both are almost cooked, pour in fish stock. If you don’t have any, simply use water. Season with salt, pepper, bay leaves and, above all, ground allspice. This is a very typical spice for this dish and we highly recommend using it. Ground cloves could be used as a substitute, but we would only use them in very small amounts.
This needs to simmer gently for around 20 minutes or longer until the potatoes and carrots are cooked. Then add cream. We only use sweet cream, but sour cream or crème fraîche also work very well.
From now on, the dish must not be allowed to boil, but only kept below boiling point. Dill – we like to use plenty and chop it fairly coarsely – is added next and should be given 2 minutes to release its flavour.
Then comes the best quality salmon, skinned and cut into large pieces. It should only be poached and must not be boiled under any circumstances. After just a few seconds, it will turn light in colour on the outside, and after 3 minutes it will be perfectly cooked. The pot must then be removed from the heat, otherwise the fish will overcook. Serve immediately in preheated dishes.
We do this with a few more dill tips and the occasional splash of lemon juice.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients ( for 4 people):
These are guidelines – there is no right or wrong!
50 g butter
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 leek
400 g waxy potatoes
200 g carrots
(You can replace some of the hard vegetables with celeriac, parsley root and/or parsnips, but don’t overcomplicate it)
Optional: 100 ml Noilly Prat (or other light vermouth)
200 ml dry white wine
2 bay leaves
2 tsp ground allspice
1 l fish stock (alternatively water)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200 ml cream (or 150 ml cream and 1 tbsp crème fraîche)
1 bunch of dill
400 g salmon fillet
A dash of lemon juice
