Tuesday 23 August 2011

Fish soup

One of the reasons why I got this blog was because I wanted to post recipes and get inspired and start cooking more as that is one of my biggest interests. This summer has been a bit more hectic than I thought so unfortunally that hasn't happened yet. I hope that starting school and working much less will mean more time over for cooking, if not - maybe I should quit school and become a housewife and cook all days? yeah maybe not haha :) (even though it does sound quite fun).
Here is the first recipe for this blog and it's a fish soup that I did yesterday when my friends came over for dinner. I normally don't measure things when I cook so I will try to remember about how much I put in. This recipe is for about 7-8 people and it takes about 2-2½ hours to make.

Fish soup

For the broth:
6 carrots
1 small swede/rutabaga
1 small rooted celery
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 fennel (not the herb but the vegetable)
5-10 whole white peppercorn
2 tablespoons tomato purée
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
The shell (?) of about 500 grams of shrimps (1 pound)

Chop all of the vegetables in smaller sizes - but they can still be pretty big as you don't keep this in the end and it's only for flavour as this will be the broth. Heat up a BIG pot with the oil and the butter. Add everything except from the shrimp shells and stir for about 5 minutes on medium heat and make sure it doesn't get burned.

Add water - I'm guessing about 4-5 liters (16-20 cups). Let it simmer/boil for about 40-50 minutes (start preparing the rest while waiting further down). Almost half of the water is suppose to go away so the flavours get more concentrated.

Put the shrimp shells in the oven on about 200 degrees celsius or around 400 farenheit and "roast" them for 15 minutes. Add them in the pot with the vegetables and let it boil for another 15 minutes - not longer!


Pour out the broth through a strainer twice - it has to be through a very fine strainer (correct english word?) so it takes away even the smallest parts so you only have a clear broth left.



Put the broth back on the pot and add whatever vegetables you want to have in it. I choosed:

2 small fennels
5 carrots
½ swede
cauliflower

You should cut the fish in smaller pieces but not too small:
600 grams salmon
300 grams cod
the shrimps that you got when you used the shells

Boil the soup with the vegetables for 5 minutes. Add the fish (not the shrimps yet) and boil for another 5-6 minutes. In the end you add:

The shrimps
3 dl soya cream
3 dl white wine
1 gram of saffron
salt/pepper
and if the broth wasn't strong enough in it's taste - you can add a little bit more of powdered bouillon

I know it takes some time to make this soup but it's worth it!

Now I gotta get ready as me and the american who stays with us are going away to watch basketball. I think it was some swedish team against washington.. something like that :)

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