Fish Soup

Today I had the long car journey home back to my gorgeous mum in Norfolk. I love Norfolk. My mum lives in a lovely house in a beautiful village near the coast. So lovely and friendly is the village that we have a cake stand, a fruit and veg stand, a lobster and crab stand and an egg stand, all accompanied by honesty boxes so you can pay for the produce without anyone having to man the stands.

Today we didn't visit any of said stands but instead mum went to the farmers market where she picked up some smoked haddock, salmon and cod and promptly handed it over to me. Seeing as it was still pretty warm I didn't want anything heavy so I decided on fish soup. I based this recipe on this one from the excellent Good Food website. I got the bones for the stock from the local fishmonger, within the bones was a John Dory; great for stock! The fantastic thing about this recipe is that you can add any fish/shellfish you want. Personally I don't think it would work with oily fish such as sardines but hey, that's the beauty of it, it's up to you!

Warning the below recipe is VERY garlicky, so don't expect anyone to willingly go anywhere near you the next day.

Fish stock

What you need

finely Diced carrot, onion, fennel and celery
a whole load of fish carcasses including heads
a few pepper corns
400g ripe tomatoes
a squeeze of tomato puree
pinch of saffron
strip of orange peel
3 cloves of garlic
1 small glass of wine
1 1/2 litres water


What you need to do

Because fish stock does not need long simmering (do not leave it longer then 40 minutes as the bones will start to dissolve it it will taste chalky and off boney calcium, not good!) the vegetables need to cut finely to really get all the flavour out. Once you've diced your vegetables add them to a large pan and soften.

Next add the tomatoes and garlic and cook till soft. Add the wine and let it reduce.Then add the other ingredients and cover with the water. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Stain through a fine sieve.

Fish Soup

What you need

Soup

roughly 1-1 1/2 litres of fish stock
400 g white fish
1 bag of baby spinach
roughly 600g of other fish (I used salmon and smoked haddock)
handful of prawns

Rouille

3 garlic cloves roughly chopped
2 egg yolks
½ tsp cayenne pepper
150ml olive oil
4 tsp tomato purée
lemon juice
Gruyère , grated to serve
baguette slices, toasted to serve
What you need to do

For the soup, poach the white fish in the stock and then blend. Add whatever other fish/shell fish you want and the spinach and it's a simple as that! Serve with the rouille, Gruyère cheese and baguette
.
For the rouille put the garlic into a pestle and mortar with some seasoning and grind to a purée. Transfer to a bowl. Mix in the yolks then start adding the oil, drop by drop beating all the time. The mixture should thicken as you add the oil. Add the tomato purée, then lemon juice to taste, then adjust the seasoning.

The floating baguette and rouille make it look unappetising but it was delicious!