Monday, July 31, 2017

Finnish summer classic - Kesäkeitto

Finnish summer classic, Kesäkeitto, is creamy soup made of summer veggies.  For me, this soup encapsulates all wonderful flavours from new fresh vegetables and it is the taste of summer.

The way I make my Kesäkeitto is bit laborious since the ingredients are not cooked all at the same time. I want to respect these great vegetables and give them a result they deserve. All veggies are perfectly cooked by parboiling, to ensure optimal taste experience. Even this requires more work than traditional way, this definitely is wort the effort. This is how you should make the Kesäkeitto!


Kesäkeitto
For 4 person
1/2 cauliflower
4 carrots with tops
8 radish
12 small new potatoes
1000 ml pea pods
4 summer onion
800 ml vegetable stock
200 ml cream
25 g butter
salt, allspice (or white pepper)

Cut the cauliflower into a size of a fingertips. Cut carrots, radishes and potatoes. Peel the most of the pea pods to a bowl, but leave the smallest unpeeled.
Cut the white part of the onions from the green tops and cut onions intoa a 4-6 wedges.

Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a pot, add cauliflowers and carrots and cook them 4 minutes. After 1 minute, add onions. Using a skimmer, lift all vegetables to ice water for a while, then let them dry on a kitchen towl (or paper towl).
Add peas to boiling vegetable stock and cook 1 minute and radishes 30 seconds. Cool similar way than the above mentioned veggies.

Cook the potatoes in a stock until tender, add cream, butter and all parboiled veggies. Bring to a boil, to re-heat the veggies and when boiling, remove pot from the stove.
Season with salt and allspice.