Skip to main content

Fish Soup with Fennel

Fish Soup with Fennel 

Let me begin by saying this soup was gloriously successful! No false modesty here, and I have MH (the only liberal in the French village where she spends some of her time) to back up my claims. Described in The Soup Book as "rustic", "Mediterranean-style", "robustly flavoured" and "sure to please", the verdict in this house was that it was a great soup. The ingredients include fennel, garlic, leek, plum tomatoes, brandy, saffron, orange zest, bay leaf, fish stock, potatoes, white wine, mussels, monkfish (you can substitute another firm white fish) and tiger prawns, so it's something of a luxury and you should share it with friends.

As usual, the spouse trotted off last Saturday morning to do the shopping and obligingly went to his favourite fishmonger for the fish.  Then he walked down to Young Stephen's for the fennel - there's surely a tonguetwister there: Favourite Fishmonger is Fine for Fish but Fails on Fennel. In the meantime I headed along to our favourite wine seller to be advised on a dry white wine that would survive the cooking process and be quaffable. The main preparation work (chopping the fennel and tomatoes, crushing the garlic, slicing the leek and scrubbing and de-bearding the mussels) took well over the suggested ten minutes - and that was with the spouse on mussel duty.

Out came one of my big dekshees, on went the heat, and in went some oil and butter. Next in were the fennel, garlic and leek. When lightly browned and softened I stirred in the tomatoes and brandy. Delicious aromas wafted around. Making a quiet entrance into the mix were the saffron, orange zest, bay leaf (from my garden), fish stock (commercial, in case you were wondering), and potatoes. While this was simmering gently, I set about murdering the mussels in a separate pot. Eventually they and their fellow marine animals joined the vegetable matter in the dekshee. MH arrived just in time and we sat down to feast on this glorious soup. Definitely to be made again.

I had hoped to include some photos with this blog, but the hunt for the connector is in progress.

Until next time ...

Minnie


P.S.  Two weeks later (5th December, 2011).At last, the spouse found the camera connector and I am inserting my photos.

Mussels await their fate
Fennel and tomato simmering away in my dekshee
The completed fish and fennel soup

.



Labels:

Comments

  1. MH22 November 2011 at 20:25

    It was indeed a wonderful soup....worth the price of the slur which I shall overlook....I am actually one of three liberals in the village! Vive La France!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lovage Soup

Lovage Soup   Today I made lovage soup, the second recipe by Sophie Grigson in The Soup Book that I have used in the last four days. She introduces the recipe with these remarks: "If you don't grow this old-fashioned herb yourself, ask around among your gardening friends or head down to the nearest garden centre to see if they sell it. " As I mentioned in my last blog entry (18th May), lovage now features among the herbs in my front garden. As the spouse left the camera at home, I took some photographs. Parsley, sorrel and lovage in Minnie's garden. Rosemary, parsley and lovage in Minnie's garden.  I had hoped to add chervil to my collection of herbs - there's a recipe for vegetable and chervil soup in The Soup Book - but "Young Stephen" wasn't able to source any for me. At least he tried. Just while I'm mentioning Stephen, I have to reveal that the spouse and the older offspring claim that he has been mention...
1 comment
Read more

2019: Another year over ...

I was very busy last month as I prepared for Christmas. My cooking ventures included making three soups from The Soup Book : zuppa di verdure, Brussels sprout soup and kichidi, which I first made in January 2013, December 2010 and November 2011 respectively. I'm not sure what happened to the kichidi when I made it two days ago, but pouring out the water in which I simmered the lentils, rice and ginger was probably not a good idea.  Jamie Oliver's Christmas rocky road I spread the Christmas love by making Nigella 's and Jamie Oliver 's Christmas rocky road. Nigella uses amaretti biscuits, Brazil nuts and glace cherries while Jamie uses popcorn, coconut and stem ginger syrup. Cut and put into bags left over from the older offspring's wedding, both types of rocky road were well received as gifts. A large cake tin full of Nigella's was put to good use at my sister T's house over Christmas.  Nigella's Christmas rocky road One of my colleagues p...
2 comments
Read more

North Sea Fish Soup

Shaun Hill is the author of today's soup, North Sea fish soup, and he advises that as the seafood must be "just cooked", dense fish should be cut into small pieces or added earlier. It was a simple soup to make as there was no frying or whizzing. The only panicked moment or ten that I experienced was when I couldn't find the cod loins the spouse had bought. I am terrible when it comes to finding things and can usually rely on the spouse to find whatever it is I'm looking for. It's the main reason I married him. But even he was almost as useless as I was. I could remember riffing on the topic of cod loins earlier in the day. The older offspring had asked: "Why cod loins? Do cod have loins? Do they walk?" Fair point. I remembered asking was it a spelling mistake? Had the packager meant to write "cod lions", and so it continued.All very silly. North Sea fish soup: final addition of the tomato and parsley Ready to eat The ingredient...
Post a Comment
Read more