How to make a real Mediterranean fish soup is always a subject of lively and utterly dogmatic discussion among French experts; and if you do not happen to live on the Mediterranean, you cannot obtain the particular rockfish, gurnards, mullets, weavers, sea eels, wrasses, and breams which they consider absolutely essential. But you can make an extremely good fish soup even if you have only frozen fish and canned clam juice to work with because the other essential flavorings of tomatoes, onions or leeks, garlic, herbs, and olive oil are always available.

FISH TO USE

Fish soups are usually made from lean fish. The flavor of the soup is more interesting if as many varieties of fish are included as possible, and the soup has more body if a proportion of gelatinous fish such as halibut, eel, and some of the firmer-fleshed flounder types are used. Here are some suggestions:

  • Rock, Calico, or Sea Bass
  • Cod or Lingcod
  • Conger or Sea Eel
  • Flounder
  • Grouper
  • Grunt
  • Haddock
  • Hake or Whiting
  • Halibut
  • Lemon Sole
  • Perch
  • Pollock or Boston Bluefish
  • Porgy or Scup
  • Redfish or Red Drum
  • Rockfish or Sculpin
  • Scrod
  • Red or Gray Snapper
  • Spot
  • Fresh-water Trout; Sea Trout or Weakfish
  • Shellfish—Clams, Scallops, Mussels, Crab, Lobster

To prepare the fish for cooking, have them cleaned and scaled. Discard the gills. Save heads and trimmings for fish stock. Cut large fish into crosswise slices 2 inches wide. Scrub clams. Scrub and soak the mussels. Wash scallops. If using live crab or lobster, split them just before cooking. Remove the sand sack and intestinal tube from lobsters.

SOUPE DE POISSON.jpg

Soupe de poisson has the same taste as bouillabaisse, but the soup is strained and pasta is cooked in it to give a light liaison. If you are making the soup on the Mediterranean, you will come home with dozens of tiny, freshly caught fish all colors of the rainbow. Elsewhere, use whole fish, fish heads, bones, and trimmings, shellfish carcasses, or just bottled clam juice.

For 6 to 8 people

  • A soup kettle
  • 1 cup minced onions
  • ¾ cup of minced leek, or ½ cup more onions
  • ½ cup olive oil

Cook the onions and leeks slowly in olive oil for 5 minutes or until almost tender but not browned.

  • 4 cloves mashed garlic
  • 1 lb. of ripe, red tomatoes roughly chopped, or 1½ cups drained canned tomatoes, or ¼ cup tomato paste

Stir in the garlic and tomatoes. Raise heat to moderate and cook 5 minutes more.

  • 2½ quarts water
  • 6 parsley sprigs
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ½ tsp thyme or basil
  • ⅛ tsp fennel
  • 2 big pinches of saffron
  • A 2-inch piece or ½ tsp dried orange peel
  • ⅛ tsp pepper
  • 1 Tb salt (none if clam juice is used)
  • 3 to 4 lbs. lean fish, fish heads, bones, and trimmings, shellfish remains, or frozen fish from the list above. Or, 1 quart clam juice, 1½ quarts of water, and no salt

Add the water, herbs, seasonings, and fish to the kettle and cook uncovered at a moderate boil for 30 to 40 minutes.

  • ½ cup to ⅔ cup spaghetti or vermicelli broken into 2-inch pieces
  • A 3-quart saucepan

Strain the soup into the saucepan, pressing juices out of ingredients. Correct seasoning, adding a bit more saffron if you feel it necessary. Stir in the pasta and boil for 10 to 12 minutes or until tender. Correct seasoning again.

  • Rounds of hard-toasted French bread
  • 1 to 2 cups grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese and rouille (following recipe)

Pour the soup into a tureen or soup plates over the bread rounds, and pass the cheese and rouille separately.

Substitute 3 or 4 cups of diced “boiling” potatoes for the pasta, or poach eggs in the soup as for the garlic soup.

Rouille [Garlic, Pimento, and Chili Pepper Sauce]

Rouille

The following strong sauce is passed separately with fish soup or bouillabaisse; each guest helps himself and stirs it into the soup.

For about 1 cup

  • ¼ cup chopped red bell pepper simmered for several minutes in salted water and drained, or canned pimiento
  • A small chili pepper boiled until tender, or drops of Tabasco sauce
  • 1 medium potato cooked in the soup
  • 4 cloves mashed garlic
  • 1 tsp basil, thyme, or savory

Pound all ingredients in a bowl or mortar for several minutes to form a very smooth, sticky paste.

  • 4 to 6 Tb fruity olive oil Salt and pepper

Drop by drop, pound or beat in the olive oil as for making a mayonnaise. Season to taste.

  • 2 or 3 Tb hot soup

Just before serving, beat in the hot soup by driblets. Pour into a sauceboat.

BOUILLABAISSE

You can make as dramatic a production as you want out of a bouillabaisse, but remember it originated as a simple, Mediterranean fisherman’s soup, made from the day’s catch or its unsalable leftovers, and flavored with the typical condiments of the region—olive oil, garlic, leeks or onions, tomatoes, and herbs. The fish are rapidly boiled in an aromatic broth and are removed to a platter; the broth is served in a tureen. Each guest helps himself to both and eats them together in a big soup plate. If you wish to serve wine, choose a rosé, or a light, strong, young red such as a Côtes de Provence or Beaujolais, or a strong, dry, white wine from the Côtes de Provence, or a Riesling.

Ideally you should pick six or more varieties of fresh fish, which is why a bouillabaisse is at its best when made for at least six people. Some of the fish should be firm-fleshed and gelatinous like halibut, eel, and winter flounder, and some tender and flaky like hake, baby cod, small pollock, and lemon sole. Shellfish are neither necessary nor particularly typical, but they always add glamor and color if you wish to include them.

The fish, except for live lobsters and crabs, may be cleaned, sliced, and refrigerated several hours before the final cooking. The soup base may be boiled and strained. The actual cooking of the fish in the soup will take only about 20 minutes, and then the dish should be served immediately.

For 6 to 8 people

  • Ingredients for the preceding soupe de poisson, minus the pasta. Use fish heads, bones, and trimmings, and if you have not enough of them, strengthen the soup base with bottled clam juice

Boil the soup ingredients for 30 to 40 minutes as described in the fish soup recipe. Strain, pressing juices out of ingredients. Taste carefully for seasoning and strength. It should be delicious at this point, so it will need no further fussing with later. You should have about 2½ quarts in a high, rather narrow kettle.

  • 6 to 8 pounds assorted lean fish, and shellfish if you wish, selected and prepared from the suggestions above.

Bring the soup to a rapid boil 20 minutes before serving. Add lobsters, crabs, and firm-fleshed fish. Bring quickly back to the boil and boil rapidly for 5 minutes. Add the tender-fleshed fish, the clams, mussels, and scallops. Bring rapidly to the boil again and boil 5 minutes more or until the fish are just tender when pierced with a fork. Do not overcook.

  • A hot platter
  • A soup tureen
  • Rounds of hard-toasted French bread
  • ⅓ cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
  • Optional: A bowl of rouille

Immediately lift out the fish and arrange on the platter. Correct seasoning, and pour the soup into the tureen over rounds of French bread. Spoon a ladleful of soup over the fish, and sprinkle parsley over both fish and soup. Serve immediately accompanied by the optional rouille.

Source: MASTERING ART OF FRENCH COOKING – Julia Child