Fish soup

: food, October 15 2023 ▶

It has 2 parts - the soup itself and the garnishing sauce. As my father says "without the sauce you are just wasting the soup". You can use whatever fish you have, preferably different types. The important part is to be cleaned good, slow cooked and properly deboned. The key ingredient here is the lovage - I would not even try to make fish soup without it. Sadly, I had only a dried one.
For the fish stock:
- 1kg dorade (sea bream, zipura)
- 2.5l water
- 2 celery sticks
- 2 bay leaves
- 1ts black pepper corns
- 2-3ts salt
Put the stock ingredients in a proper pot. Boil for 1 hour. Strain the stock and put it aside. Remove the fish from the other ingredients (discard them) and let it cool down, then debone it. You need small fish pieces.


For the soup:
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- 2 medium sized carrots
- 1 celery stick
- 1 red pepper
- 1 big onion
- 4ts chopped lovage
- 80-100g butter
- 2-3 table spoons finely grated horseradish
Thinly chop all components from the "for the soup" part above. In a new big pot saute the onions with the butter for ~5-7 minutes, then add the carrots, celery, pepper and potatoes. Cook them for 10 minutes, stirring now and then. Add the fish stock and the deboned fish pieces. Boil everything another 30 minutes. If using fresh lovage, add it after you turn off the heat.


For the garnishing sauce:
- 2ts lovage
- 2ts chopped parsley
- 2ts chopped dill
- 8-10 cloves of garlic
- 1-2ts salt (you can adjust this to taste)
- 1ts sugar
- 2ts hot chili flakes
- 150g vinegar
Press the garlic into a paste. Chop the spices. Mix all ingredients.
Honestly, every soup that I cook, tastes better on the next day, but I just could not resist.
After serving, put 2-3ts sauce in your hot bowl of soup and enjoy (yes, 50ml brandy is a nice addition).