Tag: Gdańsk

Fish Soup – Gdański Bowke

Gdański Bowkie

  • This fish soup was inspired by one I had in Gdański Bowke restaurant on my recent trip to Gdańsk
  • It is a secret family recipe so I have had to improvise from what I could taste and see.
  • The original serving had long shreds of carrot and ginger but I found these hard to eat so I have used them coarse grated instead.
  • They should only be cooked for a short time to still be crisp

Ingredients

  • 350g of salmon tails
  • Passata or puréed tinned tomatoes
  • 1½ to 2 litres of vegetable stock (can be from powder or cubes)
  • 2 medium carrots
  • Piece of fresh ginger
  • 3 allspice grains
  • Juice of half a lemon 
  • Salt & Pepper – might not be needed
  • Chopped fresh herbs such as chives, marjoram or finely chopped rosemary.

    Method

  • Simmer the passata, the vegetable stock and the allspice grains for around 10 minutes.
  • Add the bay leaf.
  • Coarse grate the carrots and the ginger.
  • Add these to the soup and simmer for around 3 minutes – you do not want them to be too soft.
  • Cut the salmon into bite sized chunks.
  • Cover the salmon with the lemon juice for a minute.
  • Add the salmon to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Season to taste if needed
  • Sprinkle fresh herbs to each serving.

New Recipes

  • Just back from a short trip to  Gdańsk.
  • It has been the coldest year there for 16 years.
  • The river Motlawa, which flows to the sea, has been frozen.
  • It was hard getting around as many of the pavements had not been cleared.
  • We went to 3 of our favourite restaurants: Gdański Bowkie, Gvara(sic) and Lookier, 
  • As well as going to some lovely bakeries.
  • I have a couple of new ideas for recipes to try out very soon.
  • I managed to buy 5 recipe magazines so have lots of recipes and ideas to try out so I am very excited.

Fish Soup – Gdańsk inspired

  • I read that fish was very popular in the Gdańsk region.
  • Fish soup was one of the most expensive starters on several menus.
  • I tried it in the Motlava (yes that is the spelling!) restaurant in Gdańsk.
  • It was a clear soup with carrots and celery – not a lot different from my fish soup with celery.
  • Personally – I thought it was a bit too salty.
  • This one is based on the soup in the restaurant.
  • The menus said it used a fish stock – I have used a vegetable stock.
  • You have to chop the vegetables into very small pieces.
  • The soup in the restaurant did not have many pieces of fish – I have increased the amount.

Ingredients

  • 2-3 carrots
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 onion
  • 250g of fish – Cod/Haddock/Salmon
  • 1 ½ litres of vegetable Stock/ or fish stock
  • 6 allspice grains
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

  • Peel the carrots and chop them into very small pieces.
  • Cut the celery stalks into very small pieces.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Add the allspice and peppercorns to the stock.
  • Add the onion to the stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Add the carrots and celery, bring back to the boil.
  • Simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Chop the fish into small chunks and add to the soup.
  • Bring back to the boil then simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Season to taste and serve.

Gdańsk soup on the left – mine in a Royal Doulton Carnation soup plate on the right.

Back from Gdańsk

  • I am back from a short trip to Gdańsk.
  • This year is was dry nearly all the time – often with blue skies.
  • We went to some old favourite restaurants, bought pastries from bakeries and tried new places to eat.
  • I read that the local food here is fish and wild game and tried some duck pierogi again as well as wild boar – dzik in Polish.
  • The sign translates as – Sooo delicious because they are Polish.
  • In my next posts I will look at some recipes from my last visits and some new ones discovered this time.