Today I have a really excellent, creamy fish soup based on the French model on the menu. I have filled it with pan-fried cod fillets and butter-fried vegetables like leek, fennel and savoy cabbage. I place the filling on deep plates, while the soup is poured inside at the dining table. It gives a little extra wow factor and cheap points for any guests. The soup will work excellently as a starter or main course on New Year’s Eve if the last night of the year includes New Year’s cod.
The recipe is sponsored by Eva Solo, who a short time ago added the jug in the picture above to their Nordic Kitchen series. It is made of black stoneware, which matches the other parts of the series. In addition to plates, bowls and cups, they also include pans and pots in the simple and masculine design that characterizes the series. See, among other things, my recipe for the wildly delicious chicken breasts in a creamy tomato sauce or my recipe for Indian chicken in curry, where some of the other news are included.
Create your own fish stock
It was quite obvious to use the Nordic Kitchen jug for the fish soup here. I’m quite obsessed with fish soups myself, and if I spot it on the menu at a restaurant, I can almost never resist ordering it. However, it is a little less often on the menu at home. This is sole because I rarely have fish or shellfish stock in stock. And that requires a good fish soup. You can buy it from a fishmonger, but if you use it a lot, it quickly costs the tip of a jet fighter. It may not matter if it is for the New Year’s menu once a year. Here, as you know, you have to turn up the decadent scale a bit.
In fact, however, it is easy to make fish stock from scratch. It just requires a good pile of fish bones, which only needs to be simmered for 20 minutes, in contrast to, for example, beef stock, which gets better and better as the hours go by. If you are planning to put a game like this on the table on New Year’s Eve, you can start putting fishbones aside now. Ask your fishmonger to fillet rather than whole fish, and get the bones in a separate bag. Then they can go for a short trip in the freezer until you have collected a nice pile of bones to cook stock on.
Another option, which is quite a bit cheaper, is to use a stock cooked on mussels. They are a nice economical snack, which can also be found in ordinary supermarkets today.
Fish soup with a variety:
As previously mentioned, I have used cod fillets, savoy cabbage, leek and fennel as filling. However, you can easily vary the filling according to taste and preference. Thus, other fish can easily be included in the recipe here. However, I would probably prefer filleted fish for fish soup. That makes it a little easier to eat. If you feel like it, you can also use shellfish instead. A couple of big fat scallops, a couple of spiny lobsters or a handful of steamed mussels will also be delicious in the soup. Of course, you can also go all out and serve a combination of fish and shellfish.
Ingredients
Fish soup
2 onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
1 parsley root
1 fennel
Oil for frying
2-3 tbsp. tomato puree
50 ml pastis
½ bottle of white wine
1 qt. garnish consisting of a few sprigs of parsley and fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon saffron
1 l fish or shellfish stock
2 dl whipping cream
1-2 tbsp. cornstarch
Salt, pepper
Fill
6 small cod fillets
1 fennel
½ savoy cabbage
1 leek
50 g of butter
Possibly. fresh herbs for dill
Notes
There can be a big difference in the thickness of cod fillets. Please note that the roasting time is only indicative. You can check the cod by inserting a skewer into the centre of the fish. If it feels cold, return the fish to the pan.
Course of action
Soup
- Start by preparing the vegetables. Peel the onion and garlic, and peel the carrot and parsley root. Then roughly chop all the vegetables.
- Heat a good drizzle of oil in a large pan and sauté the vegetables until they begin to collapse. Add tomato puree, Pernod, white wine, herbs, bay leaf and saffron.
- Let the pot simmer until the water is reduced by half, and pour in the stock. Skim off along the way when necessary.
- Let the soup simmer for about 20-30 minutes until it has reduced by half again, strain the soup and add the cream.
- Even if possible with cornstarch stirred into the water until you have the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Fill
- Salt the cod fillets about 15 minutes before you need them.
- Halve the fennel and finely chop it. Cut the cabbage and cut the leek into thin rings. Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the vegetables over even heat for 4-5 minutes until they collapse. Season them with salt and pepper.
- Heat a drizzle of oil in a pan and fry the cod, skin side down, for a few minutes. Turn the fish over and fry it for a further 2 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through.
- Place the vegetables and fish on deep plates and pour the hot soup over them. Garnish with fresh herbs if desired.
- Enjoy the soup with good bread.