Fish Soup
Potatoes Fish and Seafood Soups and Stews
Although I live in Cluj where fish availability is limited to a few supermarkets, I've still found ways to make delicious fish soups. Whenever I fillet fish, I freeze the remaining skeleton (heads and tails), and when I clean shrimp, I make sure to save and freeze the shells. Sometimes I also freeze the liquid from steamed mussels (for example when preparing marinated mussels). All of these form a great base for fish soup. Obviously, if you live in areas with abundant fish, you'll use small fish as is customary. Shrimp shells are not mandatory, but they give a sweet flavor to the soup, so use them if you have them.
Ingredients
350 g fish fillet (sea bass, halibut, sea bream)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 slice celery root (about 50 g)
5 garlic cloves
80 ml dry white wine
2 large potatoes
100 ml passata (or tomato paste)
1 ripe tomato (can be canned)
1/2 lemon
1/4 bunch parsley
1 stem lovage (or dill)
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
Fish Stock Base
300 g small fish (I used the heads and tails from 2 sea bass and shells from 15 shrimp)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 slice celery (about 50 g)
1 bay leaf
1 stem thyme
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons oil
Servings: 5
How to prepare fish soup
- Start preparing the fish stock base: sauté the grated vegetables in hot oil. When the onion is soft, add 6 cups of water, pepper, bay leaf, thyme and a little salt. Place the cleaned fish in the soup. Simmer for 30 minutes over medium heat.
- Strain the stock base, pressing the solids in the strainer with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid. Discard the solids.
- In 2 tablespoons of oil, sauté the chopped onion, carrot rounds, and celery cubes. When the onion is soft, add 3 crushed garlic cloves and sauté for another minute.
- Add the wine and cook until evaporated.
- Add the fish stock base prepared above. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the potato cubes, passata, and crushed tomato (or diced). Season with salt to taste. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are done.
- Reduce heat under the soup. Add the fish fillet cut into cubes. Let it cook for maximum 5 minutes (check that it's done).
- Crush the remaining garlic with a little coarse salt until it becomes a paste. Add the olive oil. Add as much of this garlic paste to the soup as you like, according to your taste. I used about 2/3 of it. The soup's flavor is more intense, subtle, or sweet depending on the fish used for the stock base, so you'll determine the amount of garlic paste accordingly. Now add sourness with lemon juice according to taste (I used 3 tablespoons lemon juice). I also ground some black pepper and chili into the soup (just to make it slightly spicy). Adjust salt as needed.
- Remove the pot from heat and add the finely chopped herbs. Let it rest for 10 minutes with the lid on.
- Serve warm with toasted bread or garlic bread.
Cook the shrimp shells and fish heads
(strained) fish stock
Fried vegetables, added wine
Add the potatoes
Add the garlic paste
