Love soup? Love fish? Love fish soup!
Well, it's not quite as easy, I'll be the first to admit that. But I truly love fish. And soup. The combination of the two took me a while. And I am pretty sure I wouldn't appreciate seeing a fish head swimming in my soup, but for making fish soup? Perfect!
I grew up with summer vacation spent at the Danish coast fishing every day with my dad and having fresh caught cod both for lunch and dinner. Preparation was always the same: Filets or patties fried in the pan with a mustard sauce. And I still love that. We didn't have a lot of money and it was cheap food. It made this vacation away from home possible for us.
Anyways, back to the soup. This is a very, very simple recipe, really easy cooking for anyone who is a bit curious and likes to try something new. Go for it, you won't regret it.
Ingredients
- fish, the more variety the better, my usual suspects are
-- tuna
-- cod
-- tilapia - shrimp
- clams or mussels, but these are optional, I don't like them but hubby loves them, so they are in there
- fresh parsley
- garlic
- chili peppers
- diced tomatoes, canned
- white wine
- fish stock, can be substituted with vegetable stock
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
This is the haul I came home with from the supermarket. And while this is an easy meal, it, unfortunately, isn't cheap. Because at least where I am living fish, good fish, is pretty expensive, but every now and then - it is well worth it.
First things first - mise en place.
At the store I got a whole bag of fresh New Jersey Sandy Hook Little Neck Clams. When you buy clams or mussels you need to make sure that they are fresh and good to eat. Wash them a couple of times because hardly anything is worse than grinding on sand when you're eating. Scrub them in a bowl of cold water and let them sit a little. When you drain the water make sure that all of the clams are closed. Any that are open (even little bit) - toss them out. It's not worth the risk.
Cube the different fish filets into ~2" cubes, I sometimes cube them too small and then they fall apart during cooking very easily. It doesn't really impair the taste but the optics are definitely not as nice. Wash and chop up the parsley, chili peppers and garlic and set aside as well.
Now, let's start the stove.
Into the pot go a little olive oil, the parsley, garlic and chili. Fry the mix for a few minutes without browning it and then douse it with a dry white wine.
Let the wine reduce a little and then add the diced tomatoes and fish stock and cook for 15 minutes. Then bring to a boil and add in the clams put the lid on and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Eventually, you will see the clams opening up. This time make very sure that all of them opened. If you find one that didn't - toss it out. Once the clams are done cooking I usually take them out and keep them warm in an oven, while finishing the soup.
Toss the cubed fish and shrimp into the pot, reduce the heat so the fluid doesn't boil and place the lid back on the pot. Boiling will make the cubes disintegrate while just the hot fluid will cook the fish gently and keep it intact. It will only take a few more minutes for the fish to be done.
Finishing touches
While the fish is seeping (6 - 8 minutes) prepare the bowls. For this meal I bought some fresh baguette but previously I have used my home-made sourdough bread as well. For an added flavor you may toast the bread with garlic but I'm usually too lazy to do that. So, I just place a few slices of bread into the bowl and then start filling up the bowl with the goodies.
Since I don't like clams I serve them separately, of course normally, you'd have them, in the soup. If you look closely at the bowls you'll see that some of the clam flesh separated from the shell and is now swimming in the soup. If I find any in my bowl... I'll be spoon-feeding my hubby - hahaha.
And there you go, that's my easy fish soup recipe for you. Have a great rest of your day!
Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee
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