SO MUCH SOUP LEARNING TO SHARE!
Bear with me as I take you down some interesting culinary paths, beginning with the photo you see above. What that is – and how I got here is all because of my friend Jo!
As usual, Jo Tracey’s terrific “BKD Cookbook Club” had a great challenge for January:
“We’re off to Scandinavia! For those of us in the southern hemisphere, the challenge might be to cook summer Scandy… I can’t wait for this one.”
I love this one, because I had a few ideas…and then Dorothy, from “The New Vintage Kitchen” upended my ideas with her “Finnan Haddie” and “Cullen Skink” talk!
Here’s Dorothy’s dish:
“The New Vintage Kitchen” posted this great fish soup…using a Scottish delicacy!
“Finnan haddie” (pronounced “fin-nadd-ee”) is a traditional Scottish delicacy of cold-smoked haddock, originating from the fishing village of Findon, Scotland, known for its pale color, smoky aroma, and delicate flavor, often used in creamy dishes like Cullen Skink!
“Cullen skink” is a traditional, hearty Scottish soup made from smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions, named after the fishing village of Cullen in Moray, Scotland. It’s a creamy, thick chowder that’s often served as a starter but can be a meal on its own, typically garnished with fresh parsley or chives and served with crusty bread.
Jo’s cookbook challenge called for us to share a Scandinavian recipe, but there was something in Dorothy’s recipe I had to use – so here I go with a Scandinavian Fish Chowder with a “Cullin Skink” twist!!
See this Scandinavian fish chowder? It’s often called “Fiskesuppe“: a rich, creamy soup featuring local fish (like salmon, cod) and shellfish (shrimp), combined with root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, leeks) in a buttery milk/cream broth.
And here is what Dorothy said about her Scottish Chowder:
“My Aunt Mary thickened her milk sauce with a roux, my mom did not. Instead, she added some potato flakes for a little extra body, so I’ve used her technique here…I also use the potato flakes as a coating on fried fish, such a lovely but subtle fried potato flavor!”
Yes, those are fried potatoes skin flakes! Here’s how easy they are to make!
Yes, you just peel your potatoes – which will be added to the soup – and pan fry the skins in butter until crispy golden! Here they are again – you could even just eat these as a snack!
Now that I made them, I just had to add them to my Scandinavian Soup, so let’s get cooking!!
It begins with the fish, in this case one pound of Halibut that my son-in-law caught fresh in Alaska’s icy waters…you can also use salmon or cod as well…
1 clove garlic
2 medium potatoes, diced – and save the skins for frying!
2 carrots diced
1 leek diced
3 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
4 and 1/4 cups fish stock
1 cup milk
1 and 1/4 cup crème fraîche (or sour cream)
1 cup shrimp, peeled and cooked (optional)
1 tbsp chives (or dill or parsley)
Cut the fish fillets in cubes. Chop the garlic. Rinse the vegetables and cut into thin strips.
Heat the butter in a pot and add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to turn golden add the flour, whisking well.
Add the fish stock and continue to whisk until there are no lumps, then add the onion and fish stock like this:
Add the vegetables and milk and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the crème fraîche (or sour cream). Bring the soup back to a simmer and add the fish and shrimp. Let the fish cook in the hot soup for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle with chives and parsley and it’s ready to eat…as you saw, I had mine over a small portion of cooked white rice below it….
Here’s how it all came together:
Verdict? A Revelation!
I’ve made a lot of creamy fish chowders, and this one was delicious….purely Scandinavian, but the addition of the Cristy potato skins really made the dish pop!
The creme fraiche gives an added boost of creaminess, and the halibut was fresh, meaty and full of “freshly caught” flavor! The shrimp were plump and delicious as well…a really great soup to have with some crusty bread and a nice glass of White Burgundy!
And those fried potato skins: a revelation! The skins of the potato hold most of the nutritional value, and they taste great too!
Again, I have Dorothy to thank – go here to her website now to see how she used Scottish Finnan Haddie to make an incredible fish chowder!
I have cooked many of Dorothy’s recipes in the past, and shared a number of them as well, like these “stuffies!”
Baked Clams are tough to beat, and Dorothy shared a great recipe for them here!
Thanks again to Jo for putting on this great cooking challenge…see her unique contribution as well as many others at her terrific website here!
I grew up with clams in my life as well – as my Grandfather was a Shrimp fisherman outside of Seattle, and we had plentiful clams, oysters, shrimp and more!
That’s why Linguine with Clams is one of my favorite dishes, and if you click here you can see the recipe I follow:
Clams can be used in so many ways, and here is an example:
This is a Bacon Corn Chowder…just add clams and you will take it up a notch!
Here is the recipe:
Of course, we haven’t even discussed the medicinal benefits of clams yet:
This is a clam nectar in a can that cures hangovers! Check it out here!
Leave me a message and let me know if you’ve tried this “clam hangover cure!”
If you like this story, follow me here!
Thanks again Jo for putting on this great cooking challenge…if you liked this, please share on social media!
Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Travel, Food Writing, Recipes, Travel, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
Cullen Skink is one of my favourite things to eat. We had to visit Cullen when in Scotland last year, but we were (sadly) there too early in the day to have the soup – although I had it in many other places lol. Love this Scottish twist to a Scandinavian classic… or is it a Scandinavian twist to a Scottish classic? Thanks, as always, for linking up.
It was a purely Scandinavian fish chowder, but the potato skins came from Dorothy’s Scottish fish soup recipe…a global effort! Thanks as always for putting these on!
Oh, ‘kalasupp’ – noh, seda me tahame 🙂 ! ( Oh, fish soup – we all love that !) What a fun post for me – read both Jo’s and Dorothy’s wonderful posts and, coming from the Baltics, we ‘own’ fish soups also 🙂 ! And, yes, I most certainly crisp potato skins – not only are they tasty but have the most food value as far as spuds are concerned! And – cod and sour cream for me – I am ‘old-fashioned’ 🙂 !!!
Thanks for the note – while I know potato chips well, the idea of frying the skins had escaped me! I grew up in Seattle, with plenty of fish, sour cream and tartar sauce as well!