Some people remember the places they visited by what they saw or the people they met. I catalog my travel memories by locations of memorable food and those without. History and culture often draw me to explore a place, but I rarely travel for just a specific dish or restaurant. Once there, however, food and markets are major attractions. A rich, flavorful local cuisine enriches my travel experience. Thus, it was with a bowl of Bergen Fish Soup on a rainy September day — a wonderful prelude to a phenomenal cruise along Norway’s fjord-filled coast to the northern city of Kirkenes, above the Arctic Circle.
Weldon and I always loved Norwegian food, whether prepared in his Mother’s kitchen or on trips to Oslo. But this was our family’s first opportunity to explore the beauty and culinary pleasures of coastal Norway, starting in Bergen, a city — once the biggest in Scandinavia — built on fish. Today, it is Norway’s major trading port.
We arrived two days before our cruise and had a chance to explore Bergen. I was eager to see Bergen’s historic harbor-side fish market – Fisketorget i Bergen, (literally “Fishmarket in Bergen,” but also called Torget by locals because more than fish is sold) which has been a meeting place for merchants, fishermen and the citizens of the city since the beginning of the 13th century.
Bergen Fish Market
Today, Bergen’s fish market sells an impressive array of fresh fish and shellfish from local waters.
Salmon, monkfish, pollack, coalfish, dark whale meat, huge crab legs, crab claws, shrimp, sea urchins, oysters, local caviar are arrayed in colorful displays attracting both photographers and tourists. A variety of cooked, tinned, dine-in and carry-out seafood also is outstanding. Other venues sell sausages made from local meats (reindeer, moose, and whale), lingonberry and cloudberry jam. Baskets of locally picked berries also are abundant. We enjoyed a delectable seafood salad at a huge communal table under a red tarpaulin roof, while watching locals, tourists, adults and children mingle around the stands.
A short walk from the Torget is Bryggen, a UNESCO World Heritage site, an authentic restoration of a kontor, one of four Hanseatic League’s principal import/export centers. The quay and buildings behind it were originally built in 1360 by the Hansa, an economic and defensive alliance of German merchant guilds throughout northern Europe. From this Bergen office, Hansa’s presence and influence grew gradually with the acquisition of the Bryggen area and construction of more buildings for trade and homes for their workforce.
Bryggen
The Hanseatic League took control of trade in stockfish — Norway’s unique wind-dried cod — between the Lofoten islands and the rest of Europe, and for almost 400 years essentially ruled Bergen’s harbor. Stockfish, fish oil, salt and hides from Norway were traded for grain, flax, hemp, fur, timber, cloth, metal goods especially weapons, spices and amber from the eastern Hanseatic cities.
Exploring Bryggen alleyways
As we wandered through Bryggen’s long rows of tall buildings with gables facing long, narrow passageways, we stepped back in time. We explored the restored Hansa living quarters and museum on this cold rainy day and sought shelter in a restaurant inspired by local Bergen and Hanseatic cooking tucked in a passageway. We ordered a Hansa beer and Bergen Fish Soup.
What arrived a few minutes later were bowls of pale-yellow velvety soup filled with seafood and root vegetables, garnished with a sprinkling of dill and chives: a mix of cod, salmon, halibut, monkfish, shrimp with a few mussels.
Its taste was incredibly fresh, a sign that good quality fish was used both in the light fish stock and as seafood chunks in the finished soup. Small fluffy fish dumplings, quenelles of finely ground white fish such as cod, halibut or pollock, called fiskepudding in Norwegian, added a delicate texture. This Bergen Fish Soup is not as thick and starchy as a New England chowder but with its rich tart flavor, it was the perfect antidote to Bergen’s rainy climate and joins French bouillabaisse as one of the world’s best fish soups.
Although fish soup is now eaten throughout Norway, in researching Norwegian recipes, I learned there are many versions, as families often favor a special fish, vegetable, cream and egg combination which, they claim, makes their version especially delicious.
Rebuilding a recipe from memory is challenging. The ultimate recipe can only approximate that special meal whose memory may be colored by time, place, atmosphere and companionship. So, I focused on locating a recipe with similar ingredients and then proceeded to recreate the taste by varying the proportions of milk, cream and flavorings. Surprisingly, the closest recipe I found was in a post by a British freelance photographer and food writer with a Norwegian wife based in Oslo at https://nordicnibbler.blogspot.com/. With minor adjustments in ingredients and instructions, this Nordic Nibbler’s fiskesuppe hit the spot.
This Bergen Fish Soup hosts a splendid blend of flavors, textures and aromas but seafood freshness is its secret. Good, low-fat fish frames and heads, such as cod, haddock or red snapper, and an aromatic assortment of vegetables should be used for the stock. Although I prepared the soup in one afternoon, the stock can be prepared on one day and the soup finished the next day.
This soup does not require long cooking. Once you have all the ingredients, preparing fish stock takes about 45 minutes. With the stock simmering, added vegetables require a few minutes more to reach a crisp-tender state and each seafood component poaches a few minutes longer until just cooked through. Once the last of the seafood is poached, I balanced the soup’s taste by adding tempered egg yolks, creams and flour, adjusting sweetness with a bit of sugar and sourness with a teaspoon of vinegar to produce a silky soup. As Nordic Nibbler says in his post: … there should be just a subtle sweet-and-sour taste to it.
Eating this Bergen Fish Soup on a cold February day conjures memories of coastal Norway and Bergen – crisp, salty air, cries of seagulls, rolling mist, stunning fiords and resourceful people.
Bergen Fish Soup (Bergensk Fiskesuppe), adapted from https://nordicnibbler.blogspot.com/
For Fish Stock:
¼ cup coarsely-chopped parsnips
½ cup coarsely-chopped carrots
1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped (¾ cup)
1 teaspoon salt
6 whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon chopped parsley stems
1 bay leaf
3 stalks celery with leaves, or celeriac tops (preferred)
2 pounds ( 907 g) non-oily fish trimmings (heads with gills removed, bones, etc.), washed
4 quarts (3.78 l) cold water
For Soup:
2½ quarts (2.37 l) good quality fish stock
2 carrots, in ½-inch slices
2 celery stalks, diced
1 small celeriac, diced into ½-inch cubes
1 parsley root (or parsnip), diced into ½-inch cubes
4.41 ounces (125g) cod fillet (skin and bones removed) cut into 1-inch cubes
4.41 ounces (125g) halibut or haddock (skin and bones removed) cut into 1-inch cubes
4.41 ounces (125g) salmon (skin and bones removed) cut into 1-inch cubes
4.41 ounces (125g) monkfish tail cut into 1-inch cubes
½ pound (227 g) shrimp, deveined
12 mussels, washed and debearded
4.41 ounces (125g) homemade fish dumplings. (optional)
1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
10.1 ounces (300ml) whipping cream
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons good quality red wine vinegar (to taste)
1 tablespoon sugar (to taste)
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped chives and dill each to garnish
For fish dumplings (optional):
4.41 ounces (125g) cod fillet (skin and bones removed), thoroughly chilled
1 small egg, cold
1 tablespoon corn starch
Salt and white pepper to taste
Preparing fish stock: Combine the stock ingredients in a 6-quart pot. Bring to a boil, partially cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for no more than 20 minutes. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a large bowl, pressing down hard on the vegetables and fish trimmings with the back of a spoon to extract their juices. Discard solids. Wash the pan and return the strained stock to it. Reduce the stock to about 2½ quarts by boiling it rapidly, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Re-strain through a fine sieve lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth.
Proceed with preparing soup or cool stock to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to use.
From left: monkfish, cod, salmon, halibut, shrimp and mussels
Preparing soup: Bring fish stock to boil. As soon as the soup is boiling, lower the heat to medium, add vegetables and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes until partially cooked. Add mussels. Add haddock or halibut two minutes later. Add cod one minute later, followed one minute later by salmon and monkfish. Add shrimp.
As soon as shrimp turn pink, remove from the heat, lift out the fish and vegetables with a slotted spoon and set aside on a platter. Bring fish stock to boil again and reduce heat to medium. In a small bowl, beat flour, whipping cream, sour cream and egg yolks with a wire whisk; then drizzle in about ½ cup of the hot soup, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking constantly until smooth. (If lumps remain in the egg and cream mixture, pass through a fine sieve.) Pour mixture back into the soup in a thin stream, beating continuously with a whisk.
Add sugar and vinegar gradually and taste to get the right balance between sweet and sour.
Return the fish and add fish dumplings and gently reheat, but do not let the soup boil.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls and sprinkle with finely chopped chives or chopped parsley. Serve with crusty white bread.
Serves 4 as an entree; 6 for a first course.
Preparing fish dumplings (optional): Cool fish and food processor bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes before making the fish dumplings.
Pulse all refrigerated ingredients in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed. Then, using a small spoon or cookie scoop, form the mixture into small balls, placing them on a parchment or plastic wrap lined cookie sheet.
Refrigerate until ready to finish the soup.
Add fish balls to the soup just after returning the fish so they float gently on the surface of the soup. Fish balls will firm up while the soup is being reheated.
Note on fish: A great variety of seafood may be difficult to locate in the Midwest, but it should not be a problem on the coasts. Finding the seafood used in this Bergen Fish Soup in Chicago required some sleuthing, but I found everything I needed at a fish distributor to restaurants.
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