Book of Days Tales

Today is the feast of St Urho, an invented saint who is supposedly the Finnish version of St Patrick.  I hope you see the humor in it all. The legend of Saint Urho was the invention of a Finnish-American named Richard Mattson in spring of 1956, when he worked at Ketola’s Department Store in Virginia, Minnesota. Mattson later recounted that he invented St. Urho when he was questioned by coworker Gene McCavic about the Finns’ lack of a saint like the Irish St. Patrick, whose feat of casting the snakes out of Ireland is remembered on St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, the patron saint of Finland is Henry (Bishop of Finland).

According to the original “Ode to St. Urho” written by Gene McCavic and Richard Mattson, St. Urho was supposed to have cast “tose ‘Rogs” (those frogs) out of Finland by the power of his loud voice, which he obtained by drinking “feelia sour” (sour whole milk) and eating kala mojakka (fish soup).  The frogs later morphed into grasshoppers

Urho grew strong on fish soup so here is my version of the Finno-American classic kala mojakka. It is a fairly generic creamed white fish soup flavored with thyme and dill. I made this today making enough for 2 because I live alone and don’t want to be eating fish soup for a week.

©Kala mojakka

Ingredients:

1 medium sized potato, peeled and sliced
9 ozs/250g firm white fish fillet, preferably perch, pike, or trout
1 tbsp butter
1 leek, sliced (white and pale green parts only)
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch thyme
salt and white pepper
2 tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk
2 tbsps heavy cream (optional)
1 tbsp fresh dill

Instructions:

Bring 4 cups of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes, and simmer until they are soft.  Use a slotted spoon to remove them and reserve.

Keeping the water on simmer, add the fish and poach until barely cooked through (about 8 minutes).  Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and reserve along with the potatoes.  Reserve the cooking liquid in a bowl.

Melt the butter in the pot and add the onion, leek, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper and sauté until soft. Add the flour and mix well to combine, forming a blond roux. Add one cup of the cooking water, stirring well to avoid lumps. Then add plus 2 cups milk (plus cream if used). Simmer for 15 minutes.

Flake the fish and add it and the potatoes and dill 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Check seasonings and serve with buttered crusty bread.

Serves 2