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Title: Bubala's Lox and Potato Soup
Categories: Soup Fish Jewish
Yield: 6 Servings
| 1 | lg | Onion, finely diced |
| 4 | tb | Unsalted butter or margarine |
| 1 | qt | Milk |
| 4 | lg | Potatoes, peeled & diced in small pieces |
| 1/4 | lb | Lox or Nova Scotia salmon, cut into small pieces |
| 2 | Wings lox, if available * | |
| 1/2 | ts | White pepper |
* If you are buying your lox from a deli where they slice it fresh, ask to buy the wings, which are usually discarded. They are the large fins that are cut away to allow for easier slicing.
In 3-qt saucepan, heat butter or margarine & saute onion until it is soft but not brown. Add milk, potatoes, lox, wings of lox if using, & white pepper. Simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are very soft, 30 mins. Make sure soup does not boil. Remove from heat & taste for seasoning. Remove wings of lox, pick away any cooked lox & place in soup, & discard wings. Taste for seasoning, if lox is not salty, soup may need some salt added.
ADVICE FROM MAMA: I'm against violence in cooking in general, but most soups & stews in particular should never be cook at a violent boil. A gentle simmer is what's needed for soup ingredients to develop a full flavor w/out losing their texture & integrity. Milk should never be boiled because it will foam up & boil over & make a mess & a smell you won't believe. Fish too, should always be cooked on a gentle heat. So keep your heat low enough for the liquid to cook at the gentlest simmer.
NOTE: When I was eleven years old & recovering from a bout w/ pneumonia, my Aunt Dora, whom I absolutely adored, had me sent up to the Catskills to stay w/a cousin called Bubala. I don't remember much about my stay except for Bubala's delicious lox & potato soup, which may have had as much to do w/my recovery as breathing the mountain air. Strangely enough this is the Jewish fish soup that I have ever come across.
Recipe: Mama Leah's Jewish Kitchen, A Compendium Of More Than 225 Tasty Recipes -- Kugel To Kasha -- Blintzes To Borscht -- by Leah Loeb Fischer w/Maria Poluskin Robbins. 1990 DPileggi in Houston, Texas
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