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by Manos Angelakis
I first encountered Salmon Soup in Finnish Lapland when we rented, for two summer weeks, a log house in the birch forest by Inarijarvi, the largest lake of Northern Finland, approximately 200 miles above the Arctic Circle. Our cook, a lovely local lady named Kirstin hardly spoke a word of English, but turned out to be a real find; she had just retired as a home economics teacher from the local school and knew everyone and everything about the area. She would bake her own bread. She would go to the forest around the house and come back with wild mushrooms and fresh bog blueberries that tasted a thousand times better than what one could get in a supermarket. Local farmer and fishermen friends and their wives would bring strawberries and vegetables from their gardens, cheese and milk from their flocks and fish from the lake and streams that was still alive on delivery.
With those absolutely fresh ingredients, Kirstin prepared great meals. She also wasted nothing. If something was not finished in one meal, it would make an appearance the next day under the disguise of a new dish. When a large salmon, approximately 8 to 10 lb. was delivered one day, she filleted it and made gravlax with one half and salmon soup with the other.
 Ingredients:
3 to 4 lb. salmon fillet, skinned.
10 cups water
2 tsp. salt
2 white onions, sliced
1 rib celery
10 white peppercorns
4 cups peeled, cubed potatoes
1 cup light cream (if you have access to whole milk, use
instead of the cream)
1/2 cup butter
10 fresh dill sprigs
Make fish stock. Use the head, backbone and skin of the salmon, the celery rib and 1/2 of one onion chopped fine, sauté in 1/2 tbs. of the butter till onion starts to turn transparent. Add the water and boil for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid in a container and discard the rest (Kirsten would add the solids to her compost bucket to be used later in her garden).
Cut the fillet into portions, finely chop 1/2 the dill and set aside. Sauté the remaining onions and salt with the rest of the butter. When onions start turning transparent add the stock, potatoes and peppercorns and boil till potatoes are getting soft. Lower the temperature to a low boil and add the fish portions and 1/2 of the dill sprigs. Cook for another 10 or so minutes till fish is cooked through, turn heat off and stir in the light cream. Pour the soup in a soup tureen and sprinkle with the chopped dill.
Serve with buttered, unleavened barley bread. I like my soups lemony; so I add a teaspoon of lemon juice to my portion.
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