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Bergen fish soup (bergensk fiskesuppe)
bergensk fiskesuppe
A creamy, slightly sweet-and-sour Norwegian fish soup: fish stock with leek, carrot and parsnip, enriched with milk, soured cream and egg yolk, seasoned with sugar and vinegar and filled with small haddock fish balls. Chef Christopher Haatuft's recipe from Lysverket, Bergen.
- Servings
- 4
- Preparation
- 30 min
- Cooking
- 30 min
- Resting
- 15 min
- Total
- 1 h 15
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Equipment
- Large saucepan
- Food processor and its bowl, chilled
- Stick blender
- Wide pan of lightly salted water for the fish balls
Ingredients
Fish balls
The soup
Method
Chill the haddock and the food-processor bowl in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes, until the fish feels frozen on the surface but still soft inside.
Why Everything must be ice-cold or the farce will not turn light and smooth.
Timer · 15 min15:00Process the fish with the potato starch and salt to a coarse paste, scrape down, then add the milk in a stream with the motor running until the farce is smooth and airy.
Bring lightly salted water to a simmer. Shape the farce into small balls with a teaspoon, drop them in and poach for 3–5 minutes until firm right through. Lift them out.
Timer · 4 min4:00Knead the flour and butter together (beurre manié). Mix the soured cream with the egg yolks.
Bring the stock to the boil with the vegetables and simmer for 8–10 minutes. Lift the vegetables out into a bowl and keep them.
Timer · 9 min9:00Add the milk to the stock and bring to the boil. Blend in the butter and flour with a stick blender, bring back to the boil, then fold in the soured cream and egg mixture and blend until completely smooth.
Season with sugar, vinegar and salt. Heat through but do not let it boil, or it can curdle; if it does, blend again.
Why The yolks thicken the soup as they heat, but boiling scrambles them.
Return the vegetables and fish balls, add chives, and serve.
To drink & serve with
Editorial suggestion: crusty bread.
Substitutions
- Home-made fish balls → Pieces of lean white fish (saithe, haddock or cod) poached in the soup, as Visit Bergen's restaurant expert suggests.
- Seterrømme → Full-fat soured cream or crème fraîche.
Common mistakes
- Warm fish or milk for the farce: the balls turn dense.
- Boiling the soup after the egg yolks go in: it curdles.
- Too much sugar or vinegar at once: add both a little at a time and taste for a balanced sweet-sour.
Storage & reheating
Best fresh. Refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within a day; reheat gently, without boiling, until steaming hot.
Safety
Contains fish, milk, egg and gluten. The yolks are heated but not boiled: heat until steaming hot, and for pregnant or vulnerable diners use eggs certified safe to eat lightly cooked (NHS). Poach the fish balls until firm all the way through.
Allergens
Fish · Milk · Egg · Gluten
Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.
Sweet, sour and from the bones
Visit Bergen asked Gaute Birkeli of the family restaurant Bryggeloftet & Stuene what makes Bergen fish soup different. Fish soup is eaten all over Norway, he says, but in Bergen, for 800 years the heart of the Norwegian fish trade at Bryggen, its mainstay was stock from the bones of young saithe, a fish now hardly caught commercially. Old recipes often add pickled purslane. The traditional soup has a slightly sweet-and-sour taste from vinegar and sugar, and restaurants serve it with shredded vegetables, fish balls, soured cream and cream.
Chef Christopher Haatuft of Lysverket gave his version to the business daily Dagens Næringsliv: a stock-based soup thickened with beurre manié, soured cream and five egg yolks, seasoned sweet-sour, with small fish balls of haddock. "The secret is the special sweet-sour taste."
How it connects
Place
- origin Bergen In preparation