Fish Soup Round 1

Well, I do love soup. There are so many varieties of soup out there that its hard to post which one is the best. This dish is Asian inspired as I am using many different spices that are found in Asian cuisine. I have a couple of recipes up my sleeve in regards to Fish Soup and it all started with my grandmother's recipe. Again, I try to make do with what I have in my pantry, hence, this entry.

Since it's "Lent Season", I had to improvise. We were busy with a garage sale for a local charity and I didn't have the time or the luxury to cook some good food for our first Friday of Lent. So, I opted to cook something that was quick and easy. This recipe just literally "came out of my head" because I really didn't know what I wanted to make. In the end, MC really loved it. He has never had Fish Soup and before he never thought it would taste great. Not bad for a good review! <<brushing off my shoulders>>

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
5 stalks of celery
4 small onions
1 cup of carrot sticks
1 tbsp fish sauce (2 if you don't have fish stock)
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 quart of water (or fish stock)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ginger
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 lemon
1 16 oz bag of frozen fish
3 pieces of of frozen tilapia

Start with dicing the celery and onions. Coarsely shop the veggies as you want them not too finely diced. Personally, I prefer it this way because when you continue to cook the veggies, you don't want them to dissipate.

 
Get a large enough soup pot. Start to heat the pot. Add the olive oil. Give it a minute and add the butter to the pot.

Add the veggies. Notice that I am using carrot sticks. You can use regular carrots, but for me, I opted to make use with what I have in my refrigerator.

 

Allow the veggies to cook until you notice that either the carrot sticks are limp or the onions/celery are becoming translucent. Add the garlic to the mixture. Continue to cook as you want the garlic to cook well with the veggies. Cook for about a minute.

Once you notice the veggies are translucent, add the water or fish stock. Add the fish sauce and Worcestershire. Since I didn't have fish stock, I had added some more fish sauce. Please notice that there is going to be a slight odor. In the end, all that is added will be very flavorful. Bring this to a boil.

 

After 10 minutes, start to add all of the spices to the pot. Stir in all of the spices. Finally, add the soy to the pot. I did not add any salt to this as you are working with both the fish sauce and soy. These two items have enough sodium. Lately, we have been trying to watch all the salt that we intake.

 

 

 

 

Continue to bring to a boil. Once you have brought to a boil, lower it to a simmer allowing it to continue to cook the contents for about 1 hour.

Taste the soup. Squeeze the lemon juice over the pot allowing the juice to go into it. Continue to cook for another 30 minutes.

After that, add the shrimp and fish. Dice the fish into nice sized chunks. Place the pieces into the pot. Notice that I am using frozen seafood. I want to make it as simple as possible. Allow this to cook for another 30 minutes.

 

 

Check to make sure the shrimp and fish are fully cooked. I don't like my seafood to be too rubbery. You could have it with white or jasmine rice. I opted to not cook rice as I was too tired from all that garage sale madness.