Fisherman’s Soup
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I have been shown how to make a simple fish soup by my mom last summer. We bought a few sea breams for the barbecue and while they had been gutted and cleaned in the supermarket they still had the heads on (normally we wouldn’t buy them with heads) which was apparently a good thing according to my mom. She said she would make a fast fish soup. And so she did. And it was delicious!
So since then every time I buy fresh fish I want the heads too so I can make the soup. I think you get a good deal out of it (two for the price of one, right?) considering you cook the soup and you still have the rest for BBQ.
So I had checked a few recipes on the Internet and then I was going to cook Halaszle – a typical Hungarian fish soup made of Carp and some other fresh water fish but then I changed my mind. I figured it wouldn’t be the real deal without a carp and also I didn’t know which one of the many recipes was the authentic one as I haven’t tasted the real deal yet!
So for now I am making my mom’s version with my input. Like I’ve said I am using fish heads only as it is a way how not to waste any part of the fish. If you fancy putting a whole fish fillet it, feel free to do it. You can also freeze the heads if you don’t have enough right away and make the soup some other time when you gather more fish.
Fisherman’s Soup
Ingredients
- 4-5 Sea Bream Heads (or any fish available, also the more heads the stronger the flavors)
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 1 Small Onion
- A Pinch of Pepper
- Salt to taste
- A Few Sprigs of Parsley
- 1 Large Tomato , skinned
- 1 Green Pepper
- 2-3 tbsp Sunflower Oil
Instructions
- Bring a sauce pan of water (about 1 liter) to boil and drop in fish heads. Reduce the heat to low-medium and cook for 10 -15 minutes. When the fish meat is tender, take out the heads and let them cool down. Keep the fish stock for later.
- Put the oil in in a large pot. Add finely diced onion and green pepper (sliced or diced) and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the paprika and sauté for a minute or two.
- Now through a fine sieve pour in the fish stock (making sure any bones won’t get into your soup), add diced tomato, cooked fish meat (see NOTE below) pour in more water and bring to the boil. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
- At last throw in finely chopped parsley and serve with bread.
Happy Cooking with Happy Foods Tube!
Notes
Nutrition
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This looks tasty and easy! Both good things. :) No fish heads in our markets here, though. Americans are all about fillets.
Thanks Annemarie! Yes, it’s pretty easy. It’s very interesting to learn that one cannot buy full fish everywhere. You can use the fillets instead.However the flavour might not be so intensive.
An excellent fish soup for the seafood lovers like me!!
Hope you’ll give it a go! I am quite new to sea fish – slowly getting to know various species but so far so good!