Creamy Fish Soup

Ann's Food Diary has been quiet for a while, instead I have been resorting to shorter pieces on my food diary face book page. Tonight however a number of ideas and links to previous blogs came together to develop this quick and relatively easy recipe for a simple tasty and creamy fish soup.

I hope you will agree that this soup which only took 15 minutes to prepare and cook looks truly luxurious and as you will see can largely be made from things that you will have in the fridge, freezer and store cupboard.

First of all here are the ingredients and while I was constructing the dish I realised there were plenty of alternatives I can suggest.

Olive oil, onion, garlic, fennel (could substitute dill or even a splash of Pernod if you have some lurking at the back of the cupboard) parsley, pimenton (other options are paprika or chilli) tomato puree (fresh chopped tomato or even tomato ketchup would work) fish stock (chicken is an alternative) saffron (not essential) brandy (wine instead) left over sour cream (cream or milk would be fine) fish I used frozen fresh salmon and a few frozen scallops (prawns, mixed seafood or frozen white fish are good options)

This may sound odd but I also had some left over cauliflower soup to add. This was made in my soup maker which you can read more about here http://annsfooddiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-soup.html

It comprises onion, raw cauliflower, stock, dijon mustard and milk. It tastes like chicken soup and cauliflower is also one of the the main ingredients of Pret's very tasty (low calorie) mock chicken soup https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/1520-soups-%22no-cream%22-cream-of-chicken-soup.aspx

Clearly readers won't have this soup around, you could just add some milk but the fish soup might be a bit thin so I suggest either adding some plain flour at the frying onion stage, or some cornflour mixed with water at the very end. These handy thickening granules are also an option.

Method

Finely dice the onion and fry gently in 1 tbs olive oil
Add 1 clove of crushed garlic and finely chopped fennel (if using)
Add pimenton (or paprika/chilli) and mix well if thickening with flour add it now and cook for 1 minute
Add vegetable or tomato puree, fish or chicken stock "pod" a splash or two of milk (& in my case the left over soup) slosh in some brandy or wine, the saffron and simmer gently for 5 minutes
Cut the fish into bite sized portions and add to the soup bring to a gentle simmer and cook for two minutes
Add the cream or extra milk, season to taste stir gently and heat through for a minute
Serve with chopped parsley (if you have it)

My salmon and scallops were in the freezer they came from one of my favourite shops in Rye. I have written about them a few times before and guess what they have just launched their fabulous new web site https://ryebayfish.com