Every year before Christmas, many supermarkets in England have salmon on special offer. This big boy is farmed somewhere from Finland and weighs over 3kg. At £15, it was too good a deal to pass, even there's only two of us at home and I have no freezer. I ended up eating salmon for the next fours days!
I cut the whole salmon up into six pieces. Four big steaks, plus the head and tail. The head and tail was made into a tofu tomato soup with rice noodles, I took one steak over to my sister's during Christmas as she likes salmon, and I steamed another piece chinese style. The third piece I baked for my Christmas eve dinner with honey, soy sauce, ginger and dill. It was so nice and fresh.
And finally, I used the last piece to make Lohikeitto. This is a potato and salmon soup, a popular dish from the Nordic. I first had it when I went to Finland to see the northern lights. Boy, was that a good holiday! In fact one of the best three holidays I've had. I went for a week in January 2014. Scientists say the best time to see the northern lights is when the magnetic storms are the strongest. The solar system works on an eleven year cycle and the last time the solar maximum was in 2014/15. I timed my Finland trip perfectly and saw the northern lights 4 nights out of 6!!
Anyway, during my stay in Finland, we had salmon for dinner every day, cooked in different ways. I'm not normally a big fan of salmon, but I don't think I got bored of it that week. The Finns know how to make their salmon. My most memorable dish was the Lohikeitto, and I've made it many times since I've returned from my Finland trip. It always brings back nice memories. Plus it's very easy to make.
Ingredients to make Lohikeitto
The ingredients to make Lohikeitto are pretty simple. Salmon and potato of course.
Onion, a little butter, a fish stock cube for extra flavor, cream for texture and dill to garnish.
How to make Lohikeitto
The dish is very easy to make. First, peel and dice one onion and sautee in butter till it's soft.
In the meanwhile, peel, and dice two potatoes. Make sure the dices are about equal size so they cook in the same time.
When the onion is soft, add some water and the fish stock cube. I can't remember how much water I added as I always wing my recipes. I measured about 4 soup bowls for the two of us, so I'm guessing maybe one litre? You can use fish stock instead if you have that. Once the stock has come to boil, add the diced potato. Let it simmer slowly.
Now for the salmon. This is probably the trickiest part of the recipe particularly if your knife skills are a bit rusty. Mine are ok so I did everything in parallel to save time. If you're not confident in handling fish, it's better to prepare the salmon and potato first before you start cooking.
I removed the main bone first to open up the salmon steak. Then I deskinned it. This is easier than it looks, you just place the fish skin down, cut slightly into the edge of the flesh and guide your knife horizontally against the chopping board. The skin will come off easily in one piece. I saved the fish skin and baked it a few days later till it was nice and crispy, it was a perfect snack with a beer.
The most important part with the salmon is to debone it properly. Apart from the main backbone, there are some smaller bones where the belly meets the back. They have to be removed carefully. Just run you finger over the flesh and remove the bones with your fingers or tweezers. Once that's done, dice the salmon into cubes, roughly the same size as the potato.
I deboned, deskinned and diced the salmon in time for the next stage. Once the potatoes are soft, add the cream and let the soup come to boil again.
Next is the best part. Tip the diced salmon into the soup, space them out a little and make sure they're all submerged into the soup. Turn the heat down to let the residual heat from the soup cook the salmon. Salmon cooks easily and if you cook it this way the salmon will remain very tender otherwise it could go quite chalky if you overcook it. This should take only about 5 minutes.
Finally chop the dill and sprinkly to the soup. Keep a few sprigs back for garnish. Season as necessary. I didn't have to, as all the ingredients were so fresh and flavoursome.
My Lohikeitto
Overall it only took me about 40 minutes to make my lohiketto. It's a quick and wonderfully tasty meal for the winter and perfect to replay the beautiful northern lights memory.
The next maximum solar cycle is expected to be in 2025, hopefully Covid will be long gone by then as I don't want to wait another 11 years for the next one before I go to see the northern lights again.
Last call for closing contests
I'm currently hosting a couple of contests, hopefully you will come and join in the fun.
The first is from the Toys on Hive community and is about Christmas toys with 40 Hive prize pool. This contest will close on Monday 4 Jan 2355 GMT. You don't have much time for this, so be quick!
The second is my PUD Guessing Contest with 20 Hive prize pool. This contest will close on Friday 0230 GMT.
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That's a huge fish!!!! A shame you didn't have a freezer, but I would be happy eating salmon 4 days in a row! I guess it's on special due to overstocking at Christmas as usual?
I saw the southern lights, so I feel I don't need to see the northern lights in my lifetime, though I'd really love to - that trip sounds so amazing.
That soup also looks bloody delicious!
My Mum always cooks salmon with seedy mustard and that tastes great too.
I think they always do special offers over Christmas, a lot of the veggies were dead cheap as well like 29p for a bag 2.5kg of spuds!!
Are the southern lights same as the northern lights? I love watching them, once a decade is ok, I hope I can make it again 😁
You bloody island dwellers with your bloody potatoes!!!!!
Yes, they are the same!
You're just jealous 👯♂👯 nah nana na na
Hah, Jamie is!
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Wow! Salmon and dill, two of the hardest to find and expensive items in the Philippines that we miss. The latter being quite challenging to grow. That's a great offer and the lohikeitto looks delicious.
We see dill quite often in Taiwan and I remember its very popular in Vietnam, I wonder why Philippines can't grow them? Salmon I can understand them being expensive all over in Asia . thats why i haven't made this for a long time, it was a very nice treat.
Perhaps because dill is not commonly used in everyday Philippine cuisine? That's my guess. Dill could be found growing in some organic farms in the mountains and colder areas of the country. It is only available for purchase in a few city supermarkets and online shopping. I tried growing them from seedlings I bought from the city but they struggled and the pests ravaged them after a few days. Enjoy the yummy salmon and bon appetit 🙂
Thinking I would eat salmon for four consecutive days, makes me feel sick and tired. Well, maybe not if it's my favorite food. People in my place have only cooked one type of salmon dish and I don't like it that much, so I can't really appreciate it.
Also, I'm adding the northern lights to my bucket list. Instead of asking how does it feel like seeing it personally, I want to see them in my own eyes. One day, for sure!
Yeah, you definitely need to see the northern lights with your own eyes, no images does it justice. I was standing out in -20 degrees one night watching it for over an hour and didn't feel the cold at all, that's how mesmerising it was!
Does it feel different when you've seen it several times? I'm sure the first time was amazing!
4 days?!! hahaha
Still, all meals sound & look delish 🤤
So, when do you think you will eat salmon next?
Yes, to Covid being long gone by in 5 years!!
next Christmas? 😅
😂🤣
wow I think we went on the exact same place in Finland! I recognise that snow suit haha. But we didn't see the northern lights because the cloud cover was too thick and it was snowing quite heavily. 😕
the soup looks delicious!
I was at a place called Muotka up the north of Finland, it was so enchanting there. The northern lights are a real bummer, a friend of mine fly all the way from Hong Kong the week before me and didn't see anything at all, I was very lucky I think 😚
Nice post
Wow!! The size of the salmon got my jaws dropping! That looks like a really delicious and hearty soup. Might try making some time ☺️
I couldn't resist not buying it, was very tempted to eat it as sashimi as well but I figured at that price I didn't want to chance it. Cooked was perfect though
WOW, that is a big fish!!!
Yum!!! Imma cook that!
Just right for cold weather.
Four very happy days of salmon eating 😋
You betcha... yum!!!
Ummm... I wonder if it will work with my recipe I posted?
🥰🌺🤙 !ENGAGE
ENGAGEtokens.Greetings Salmon looks delicious, thank you for sharing your recipe, here in my country, Venezuela, fish is very expensive, despite the fact that we are surrounded by many beaches. Since I participated in the toy contest, I think I am missing the riddles contest.
Greetings Salmon looks delicious, thank you for sharing your recipe, here in my country, Venezuela, fish is very expensive, despite the fact that we are surrounded by many beaches. Since I participated in the toy contest, I think I am missing the riddles contest.
Sounds like UK, we are an island, but we don't eat as much fish as you would expect.
The Toys on Hive community will be hosting the second toy contest very soon, the end of this post tells you what it is about in case you want to prepare for it
https://peakd.com/hive-173630/@hive-173630/the-first-toys-on-hive-contest-christmas-toys
Greetings ok I will review to participate.
Happy New Year!
Yum! I will try the Finnish dish, looks so easy and yet so different. Perfect for lockdown and lazy me 🤣
Hope you are well and staying safe!
Hello!!! Happy new year to you as well! Hope all is well with you and family.
Still trotting along here, seems like this kind of life has become the norm now, kind of sad 😟 Hopefully things will get better as the weather improves, seems to worked last year.
Take care and come drop by more often!!!
Hopefully, it will! Seriously, I am screaming to go places now... 😭
I have managed to cook this recipe! We have decided it needs more potatoes next time 😁 And the fish was cut small, so all at the bottom... but YUM! Also very odd to cook with cream fresh, we usually put it into the soup to cool it 😂
Yeah!! So glad you made it. It's a great winter soup.
I normally wing my recipes sorry about by that 😆
Made it again yesterday, replaced potatoes with barley and rice, added a carrot and crunchy kale to garnish, was sooo good! So glad you have posted it, so easy to make and mix and match!