Naughty and Nice - Finnish Fish Soup

Another great cold weather soup is the Finnish version of fish soup - kala mojakka(sp) - that includes potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and fish in a milk broth, seasoned primarily w/ allspice. Gently boil the vegetables in water that becomes a wonderful broth until they are about done( 2o - 30 min), add milk or cream by 1 / 3 or 1 / 2, bring to simmer, and add fish portions ( 2 -3 inch)to poach for 5 minutes at the end. Ladle into bowls, strew fresh ground allspice over all, add a pat of butter to each, and serve w/ a rustic and/or whole grain bread. Fresh chopped parsley as garnish and flavor enhancer, too.

Simple, clean, healthy. An somewhat austere soup made auspicious and delicious by the generous addition of allspice.

My great Aunt Sofia would use whole black peppercorns and whole allspicecorns, which would sink to the bottom of the soup pot, and a whole northern pike including bones and head which produced a lusty barbaric flavor. She would suck on the tiny hard white inner eyeballs of the northern pike for hours, rolling them in her mouth like jaw breakers and her eyes would twinkle as she would tell stories, sometimes naughty.