A taste of summer sunshine, the Finnish classic recipe for 'summer soup,' a milky broth with tiny garden-fresh vegetables.
After graduating from high school, I spent a year as a Rotary International exchange student. I was dead-set on my first choices for host countries, South Africa and Norway. My third choice, Finland, was added to the list only because Rotary insisted on three countries and my dad, like many in the Greatest Generation, held Finns in high regard because Finland was the only country to repay its war debt. But when I was matched to Finland, I sobbed and sobbed, "I'll never learn the language. It's too hard." As life goes, I did learn to speak the notoriously difficult Finnish -- and Finland both fit and came to define my northern soul.
(But the food, Alanna, get to the food!)
This soup is a classic Finnish classic recipe. It is called 'summer soup' (kësa = summer, soup = keitto, pronounced [keh-sa-kay-toe]) because it uses the very first baby vegetables from the garden, the smallest, the newest, the freshest. It uses so few ingredients, it's hard to believe that the result can be anything special. But trust me, this soup celebrates summer -- it's glorious.
Wendy from the food blog A Wee Bit of Cooking also lived in Finland as an exchange student and calls kësakeitto 'sunshine in a bowl'. Deinin, a Finnish food blogger who is much missed, says that kësakeitto is controversial: although why, to my taste, there's no understanding.
This was a perfect dish for Midsummer, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and one that the Finns and other Nordic souls celebrate with great abandon. But really, it's all about the vegetables and thus is a soup that all of us, no matter where we live, can enjoy, again and again, all summer long.
FINNISH SUMMER SOUP - KËSAKEITTO
Time-to-table: 50 minutes
Makes 8 cups
-
MILK BROTH
- 1 tablespoon sugar (don't skip)
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 cups skim milk
- Cream to taste - I used 1 cup
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VEGETABLES
- Water to cover
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt (or salt to taste)
- 8 cups of tiny, fresh vegetables - I used broccoli, new potatoes, zucchini, carrot, onion, asparagus tips, kohlrabi but also think turnips, fennel, radishes and especially peas
- Fresh dill, chopped
In a pot large enough to eventually hold everything, stir together the sugar, flour and salt. A tablespoon at a time at first, slowly stir the milk until mixture is smooth and liquid; add remaining milk. Gently heat the milk but don't allow to boil.
In a separate large pot, bring the water and salt to a boil.
Prep the vegetables, cutting into small pieces of roughly equivalent size -- keep separate those that will take longer to cook (in my case, the potatoes, carrot and kohlrabi). When the water boils, drop these first vegetables into the pot and cook til nearly done. Add the remaining vegetables and cook until just done. Drain and add vegetables to the hot milk and cook -- but again, do not boil -- for a minute or two. Stir in cream to taste and warm through. Adjust seasonings.
To serve, scoop a few vegetables into a bowl, then top with broth and a sprinkling of fresh dill. Savor slowly, tasting that summer sunshine.
. For all who'd like to know more about Finnish cooking, this is a lovely cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas. The recipes are classics but are written for American ingredients.ALANNA's TIPS
Recipes for kësakeitto often call for cream - and if ever a soup deserves the indulgence of cream, this is it. But it occurred to me that if one starts with skim milk, then enriches with cream stirred in, that we'll use 'just enough' cream.
Be sure to include some onion, even if it's a small amount of chopped onion.
In winter, this is actually a decent soup made with frozen vegetables, the bags of 'mixed' vegetables that are all small in size.
Believe it or not, this soup is actually good cold, too. Like many soups, its flavors develop if made one day and then served the next.
During the past year, the online audience for Kitchen Parade has grown many- many-many fold. Thank you, readers! It thrills me that so many cooks are inspired by simple recipes made from whole and wholesome ingredients. Your notes, your e-mails, your comments, they truly inspire me. I wake up every morning thinking about what you might want to cook today, tonight, this weekend.
Since Kitchen Parade the 'newspaper column' is published just twice a month, following the print schedule has become a real constriction. You just don't know how many recipes are stacked up, waiting to share! I toyed with the idea of another food blog and even purchased a half dozen domain names.
Instead -- starting now, today, with this recipe -- in addition to Kitchen Parade's newspaper columns, I will begin publishing more recipes just here, just online. But never fear, the new recipes will offer what readers already count on: fresh and seasonal ingredients; classic recipes, though often with a twist and often simplified; real ingredients, especially pantry ingredients; an emphasis on getting supper on the table; plus recipes for special occasions. In short, expect more of the same: just more!
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PS Call me excited, really.
Really miss Finland in the summer months. I wasn't an exchange student, by the way. I worked over there for a few years. :)
I've never liked it. The version you get in school cafeteria's had already turned me against it, but eating in its true form (with or without the milk base) is still something I don't like. But then again, I'm not a fan of soups in general.
I'm afraid that this is one of those foods that will die a slow death in Finland because of the blandness of school food.
Wendy ~ Tis glorious! It had been some years since I'd made kesakeitto, twas almost a revelation. PS I have it in my head, I guess, that an exchange was your connection. I'll try to remember otherwise.
Ramin ~ Phooey on you. (I'd say something in Finnish but am not sure how it'd come out!) :-) I don't remember this soup from my own school year in Vantaa, but DO much remember the fish/coleslaw (excellent) and blood pancakes (managed a single bite as I recall, with lots of Finnish boys looking on and laughing). Pats to the koira-dogs from me, romps from Lady.