Fish Soup

Yesterday dinner was all about fish, delicious fresh fish from the market used to make this soup. There are several ways to make it, you can choose to follow the traditional recipes or make it a bit differently depending upon the fresh ingredients available, and this is what I  did :)

Ingredients from the fishmonger:
- 2 squids
- 300-400 g clams
- 500 g prawns
- 2 fillets of cod or sea bass.

Ingredients for the broth:
- garlic
- white wine
- 1 carrot
- 1 spring onion
- 1/2 onion
- 1 stalk of celery
- half tin of chopped tomatoes
- 4 slices of bread (I used rye bread and granary bread).

There are a few steps to follow in order to make a good soup, nothing complicated but it does require a bit more time than other quicker recipes.

Clean the clams: first of all, discard the dead clams then soak them in fresh water so they will naturally split out any salt or sand. After 30 minutes drain the clams and change the water. After another 20-30 minutes take them out of the water and use a brush to clean off any barnacles, sand or other debris which may be crusted to the exteriors.

Clean the squid: remove the internal organs from the head  then gently scrape off the outer surface of the mantle, leaving behind the white slick meat.

First of all you'll need to make a fumet. Finely chop the onion, carrot, spring onion and celery  and put the large saucepan with a spoon of oil (don't use olive oil for cooking) on medium heat. Stir evenly and cook for 5 minutes. In the meantime, wash the prawns and remove the shells and heads then separate the meat from the skin of your fish. Add the shells, heads and the skin to the pan. After a couple of minutes pour half a glass of wine then add 1 l of boiling water and low heat for 20 minutes.

Put a separate frying pan on moderate heat and add some oil and a clove of garlic then add the clams and cover until they are all open. Put the clams aside.

Remove the black vein from the back of the prawns, wash them and then pan fry them for a couple of minutes each side with some wine.

Cut the bass into chunks and chop the squid as to make ring and put aside.

Once the fumet is cooked, place a thin mesh sieve onto a bowl (possibly also a piece of cloth) and filter the liquid through the sieve. Add this liquid into a saucepan and spoon half tin of chopped tomatoes. Low heat for 10 minutes then add the bass and the squid, and cook for another 15 minutes. Afterwards, add the clams, prawns and some fresh parsley, and stir gently. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, grill some bread in oven.

Serve in a large bowl with crispy warm bread and enjoy your flavoursome homemade fish soup :)