Bones_ Recipes, History, and Lore - Jennifer McLagan [83]
Even more disastrous was to turn your fish over while eating it: that symbolized the capsizing of the fishing boat. This fear is still held by fisherman from China to Central Europe, who, when eating fish, carefully lift the bone out rather than flipping the fish.
Fish Soup
Fish soups, made in every French ocean port and riverside town, are a way to use up fish too small or bony to sell. Bouillabaisse is perhaps the most famous, but it is only one of many soups. My soup is closer to soupe de poisson, made with whole fish, complete with bones, heads, and skin. After they are cooked, everything is pureed and strained, leaving just the soup with its intense flavor.
The greater the variety of fish, the more complex the flavor of the soup. I look for small, often cheaper, fish. When choosing the fish, the same rules apply as with stock avoid the oily ones, and make sure all the innards and gills are removed.
In France, fish soups are often served with the traditional accompaniments of croutons, grated cheese, and rouille, garlic-and-red-pepper-flavored mayonnaise. Not a big fan of flavored mayonnaise in my soup, I’ve replaced it with a garlicky sweet potato puree. This delivers the garlic hit as it melts into the soup and thickens it slightly.
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 leek, white part only, sliced
1 fennel bulb with leaves, chopped
1 head garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled Kosher salt
1 large orange
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
5 coriander sprigs, plus
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
1 large rosemary sprig
2 bay leaves
1 chile pepper, such as serrano, halved and seeded
6 pounds (2.7 kg) whole ocean fish (such as red mullet, butter fish, porgy, sea bream, and/or whiting), cleaned
¼ cup (60 ml) Pernod
One 28-ounce (796 g) can whole tomatoes
6 cups (1.51) Fish Stock (page 169)
Freshly ground black pepper
Toasted baguette slices
Sweet Potato Garlic Rouille (recipe follows)
1. Heat the oil in large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, leek, fennel, garlic, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables soften.
2. Meanwhile, remove the zest from the orange using a vegetable peeler. Add to the vegetables, along with the coriander seeds, coriander sprigs, rosemary, bay leaves, and chile pepper.
3. Juice the orange, cut the fish into 3-inch (7.5 cm) sections, and rinse Well under cold running water. Add the fish to the pot, pour in the orange juice, Pernod, and tomatoes with their juice. Add the fish stock and bring to a boil, stirring so nothing sticks to the bottom. Boil hard for 3 minutes, then reduce the heat and boil gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Let cool slightly.
4. Pass the soup through the medium disk of a food mill into a bowl. This method extracts the maximum flavor by grinding the fish bones against the blade. All the liquid and some solids will pass through the food mill, leaving a dry, pasty debris behind. (To clean out the food mill during the process, turn the blade in the opposite direction and tip out the debris.) You can puree the soup, in batches, in a blender and then press it through a sieve into a large bowl (discard the solids), but the finished soup will lack texture.
5. Pour the soup into a clean saucepan, skim off any fat on the surface, and bring to a boil. Season with about 2 teaspoons salt and black pepper.
6. Serve with slices of toasted baguette and the sweet potato rouille, adding about 1 tablespoon per
NOTE: This soup separates into 3 layers in the refrigerator: top tomato, middle jelly, and fish extracts on the bottom.
ο Sweet Potato Garlic Rouille
{MAKES ¾. CUP (175