Kalakeitto

This year we took a stab at gardening. We cleared a huge area in our backyard, peeled the grass, tilled the ground. In hindsight I think it was a bit too much. But, my sons would have enough space for whatever they wanted.

We grew a lot of weeds, but we also got potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini. It was better than I thought.

So, these big carrots are from our garden. Alejandro planted them from seeds. One of the seeds flew to the corner of the garden. I was surprised to find it growing happily there.

People say that big carrots are not good. The middle core is tougher. These carrots are perfect, however. The scent was so strong when I washed them. There is nothing like ripe veggies from your own garden.

A week ago we went fishing at American Fork river. We all caught fish, three rainbow trouts and one brown trout.

With fish, potatoes, and carrots, I thought of a recipe: Finnish fish soup (kalakeitto).

Recipe

Ingredients

1lb (400gr) fish
2 carrots
4 potatoes
1 onion
heavy cream (or milk if you are a wimp)
whole allspice
dill

Instructions

Gut the fish. Put them in a pan, and cover barely with water. Use as little water as possible. Using a narrow, deeper pan works the best so you don’t need a lot of water. You will cook the veggies in this water later, so it needs to be enough, but not too much. Cook the fish until they are soft enough so you can clean them (10 minutes?).

Pick the fish out of the water, let them cool a little so you can clean them. Separate the meat from the skin, bones, head, etc. Strain the cooking water, but don’t throw it away. That will be your broth. Jut strain it to get rid of all the fish scales and bones. So, now you have clean fish broth and fish meat.

Clean and peel the carrots and potatoes. Chop the potatoes into 3/4 inch (2cm) pieces. Chop the carrots to smaller cubes. Chop the onion. Put the veggies into the fish broth and cook until they are almost soft.

When the veggies are almost done, put the fish pieces back into the soup. Add allspice. Cook until everything is cooked all the way. Add cream or milk to thicken the soup. Add dill.

Enjoy!