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Finnish Fish Chowder

This recipe is for Salmon (which I prefer) but you can use Whitefish instead. Then you have to put more butter because Salmon itself is very greasy and Whitefish is not.

400 g fish without skin.
head, bones, skin of fish
1 1/4 l. water
10 whitepepper
100 g. leek
one big spoon butter
6-7 potatoes
1 big spoon chopped chives
1 small spoon salt
1 dl cream (0,1 l.) (creamy cream)
1 big spoon chopped parsley

Cook head, bones skin and whitepeppar together in water in one cooking pot. Take all meat out of bones and head.

Chop the leek and cook about 3 min. in butter, don't let it go brown. Peal potatoes and cut them to small pieces. Put them in the bottom of a big cooking pot. Put on potatoes chopped leek, chopped chives and 1/2 small spoon of salt. Mix them.

Strain hot fish water ( water with bones etc.) on potatoes so that they are just about under "fish water". Let them stay there.

In the meantime cut fish to small pieces. When potatoes are almost ripe add rest of "fish water" and cream. Boil it for few seconds. Add raw pieces of white fish, meat pieces from bones and head and little bit of salt.

Keep the cooking pot in low temperature for few minutes. Fish will be ready in 3-4 minutes. Potatoes should start to turn very soft, in fact they should be little bit over ripe.

This is for four persons.

Instead of cream you can use milk.

Put 1/2 l. milk and rest 3/4 l. water. Do not put cream.

You should serve black bread (rye bread) and butter with this. And if you put a little bit of dry sherry in soup, it gives nice taste.

Submitted by Matti Lehtola, Finland

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