Bergen Fish Soup

Dan-Amer #1's Note:

This soup is extremely good, but you MUST use only the freshest of fish to prepare it! Small fish are what you should use. You will note that the fish is not served after being used to make the soup; one Norwegian food writer suggests that you feed it to your cat!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 -3 small cod (firm fleshed white fish) or 2 -3 small pollock (firm fleshed white fish)
• 1 quart water
• ½ celery root
• 1 carrot
• 1 leek
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• chives , as needed

Directions:

1. Place the fish in the water and bring up to a boil. Let simmer for 1/2 hour. Filter this stock through cheesecloth.
2. Cut up the celery root, carrot, and leek into small pieces and cook in the filtered stock for 5-7 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the stock and put aside.
3. In a heavy pan melt the butter, add the flour and cook with stirring for 2-3 minutes. While continuing to stir add the stock to the butter-flour mixture and continue to cook until well-blended and smooth.
4. Mix together in a warm bowl the egg and the sour cream. Eventually add a little of the soup to this while stirring continuously. Continue to add up to 1 cup of the soup little by little until the egg-sour cream mixture has warmed through.
5. Carefully add this mixture to the remaining soup being careful not to let it boil. Add the resserved vegetables to the soup and serve, each serving to be topped with some of the chopped chives.