Finnish Salmon Soup: Lohikeitto

This salmon soup can also be called salmon chowder, and it is a fairly common dish in some parts of Finland, which is understandable, as it is wonderful! You can certainly cut some of the fat and calories by substituting canned evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk) for the heavy cream. Of course too, you can adjust the salt and pepper amounts to your taste preference.

 

Ingredients  (5 or 6 servings): 

 

1 1/4 pound salmon, in bite-size pieces 

2 cups sliced leeks, mainly white and light green part

5 tablespoons butter

2 cups diced potatoes

1 cup chopped carrot

4 1/2 cups fish stock

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt (remember, the butter and the stock have salt)

3 tablespoons chopped dill, divided use

 

In a heavy-bottom pan, melt the butter over medium heat, add the leek slices and saute until they soften. Add the carrot and potatoes and saute a further two minutes, stirring often (you don't want the veggies to actually brown), then add the fish stock, bring to a boil and adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer until everything is tender, but not mushy. Add the salmon pieces and simmer another 5 to 6 minutes. Add the cream, black pepper, salt and 1 tablespoon of the chopped dill, stir to mix in. Let the now cream laced soup heat up, but do not boil. Remove from the heat, top each serving with some chopped dill. 

 

  

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Normal (Norm)-The ultimate origin of this word is shaky, but it seems to go back to Indo European "gnoh/gneh," meaning "to know," making it a distant relative of English "know," "can" and "ken/kenning," which are all from the Germanic roots of English, and it is related to "quaint" and to "cognizance," both Latin-derived words borrowed by English via French. The Indo European form gave transliterated Greek "ginosko," meaning "to know." This seemingly gave transliterated Greek "gnomon," which meant "carpenter's square." Latin borrowed this from Greek ("perhaps" via Etruscan?^) as "norma" also meaning "carpenter's square," but also, "a pattern, a model." This was taken by Latin-based French as "norme," essentially meaning "pattern, model, something to be followed (a "rule," both "the piece of wood used for measurement and drawing straight lines," AND, "a policy to be followed"), and English borrowed the word by the 1820s. Latin "norma" (mentioned above) spawned the Latin adjective "normalis," meaning "done following a carpenter's square;" thus also, "done by the rule, done following a pattern or model;" thus, "done in the common way." English borrowed the word from Latin initially in a rather limited way as a mathematics (geometry) term for "having to do with perpendicular, being at a right angle" (later also used with the meaning "perpendicular" as a noun), but later with the meaning "having to do with doing things in the established or standard way," and the word's usage began to become much more common by the early part of the 1800s. The latter part of the 1800s saw usage as a noun for "the common state of something," as in, "The normal for our family is to eat dinner on Sundays at 4 o'clock," and adjectivally as, "A normal Sunday for us is to eat dinner at 4 o'clock." Close English relative, German, also borrowed "normal" from Latin during the 1700s, also meaning, "(pertaining to) normal, usual, regular, standard." Example: "Ich hätte gern(e) einen normalen Kaffee" ("I would like a regular coffee"). 

 

^ Etruscan is a mystery language, "possibly" related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." In ancient times, Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it eventually died out when Latin came to the area, although some Etruscan words were borrowed into Latin. "Etruscan" lies behind the words "Tuscan" and "Tuscany" (Italian: Toscana), a region in western Italy, the regional capital being Florence (Italian: Firenze).