Soupe de poissons

On Sunday, I made a version of the classic fish soup from southern France. Ken and I researched our provençal cook books and a few sites online to find the basics for the recipe. Then we adapted them to what we have on hand. Our supermarket didn't have the typical Mediterranean fish used for the soup -- the small, boney, flavorful species like rascasse (lionfish) and rouget (red mullet) -- so I improvised.

My fish soup, garnished and served with a very dry Touraine rosé.

With the standard fish, you cook them whole, with heads and bones, to make a rich, fishy soup base. But you then have to be very careful to get all the bones out of the broth. That involves straining and sieving and straining again, and it sounded like a lot of work. Since we already had a liter of home-made fish stock in our freezer, we figured that we could just use boned fillets for the soup. I found cabillaud (cod), colin d'Alaska (Alaskan pollock), églefin (haddock), and merlan (whiting). All together, I had about 850 grams of fish.

About 850g (almost 2 lbs.) of fish fillets, cut into chunks.

I chopped a leek, onions, and a fennel bulb and sauteed them in a bit of olive oil (here's a question for you francophones out there: quand on fait revenir des légumes dans une cocotte, d'où reviennent-ils ?). I added some celery (branches and leaves), our own oven-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, chili paste, whole garlic cloves, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, allspice berries, a bit of fresh orange peel, and salt. Then the stock went in with an equivalent amount of water (to make two liters of liquid).

The soup simmers gently. That chain hanging from the pot is attached to a little ball that holds the peppercorns, bay, and orange peel.

Once the soup came to the boil, the fish went in and I turned it down to simmer, covered, for about an hour. The vegetables needed to tenderize and the fish needed to cook to the point where it was falling apart in the broth. Once it was done, I used a stick blender to reduce it all to a relatively smooth and thick soup. Not having to deal with bones was nice, but I wouldn't shy away from doing it if necessary.

This soup is typically served with toasted baguette slices topped with a rouille sauce (a spicy mayonnaise made with garlic and hot red pepper) and grated parmesan or other cheese. Our improvised version was delicious (if I do say so myself). And, we have leftovers for another meal.