Creamy Fish Soup (Chowder)
"This creamy fish soup or chowder if you wish is a dish that I ate a lot as a child with the only difference that my mum wasn’t cooking salmon but fish that was available at the time occasionally from the Black Sea and the Danube Delta, beautiful fish like sea bass or even sturgeon family (very posh, I know) ?. She always adds rice to any fish soup instead of potatoes or pasta which makes it really yummy so potato can be alternated with pasta or rice."
NotesCrème fraîche or yogurt are the best to use (rather than double creme or something similar) since the soup will be naturally sweet (because of the vegetables used), so crème fraîche will give it that small sour 'kick'. Please don't use low-fat yogurts as everything will turn into a curdled disaster.
If you want to keep it dairy free, you can simply use coconut milk; if you want to make it more exotic, use some Key lime instead of lemon. If you wish to replace te creme fraiche with coconut milk, you will need to cook this so please make sure you add this when putting in the fish.
Fish stock would be fabulous if home-made, but vegetable stock is fine too.
This is quite important if using salmon, please do remember to remove all the fish fat trimmings (especially the edge on the belly side by the cut) as the soup will become way too oily. No bad oils, I know and I totally agree, but not a pleasant dish to enjoy if there is excess of oil in it.
Enjoy it - it is purely delish!!
Serves4
Preparation Time15 min
Cooking Time30 min
Ingredients
- 4 salmon fillets medium sized (approx. 100-120 g each)
- 1.5 l fish stock (or vegetable stock)
- 1 medium parsnip
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 large onion
- 1 red pepper
- 1/2 courgette
- 3-4 potatoes
- 12 cherry tomatoes
Instruction
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Wash, peel and chop/cut all vegetables. I usually cut it all in nice little cubes. Keep the potatoes and the tomatoes aside but the rest of the veggies you could just chop and mix together as they are getting chopped - they will all go in together at once.
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Place a pot over medium heat. Add the stock with all the finely or roughly chopped vegetables (onion, carrot, parsnip, courgette, red pepper and celery). Add some salt and tiny pepper (one grind or two). How you cut/chop the vegetables, again, it really depends on how you like them in your spoon later when serving the soup. Cook, covered for 10-12 min from boiling point.
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When the 10-12 min of boiling has finished, add the fish fillets, the cherry tomatoes (cut into halves) the potatoes (cut into approx 1cm) or the rice if you decide to put in rice instead of potatoes. Add the turmeric powder too. Cook for a further 15 min.
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When finished cooking, add the finely chopped garlic and turn the heat off. Cover and allow to rest for a few minutes.
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Just before serving (while still pipping hot) add the creme fraiche and the dill. Taste for salt and add some more if you feel it is needed. Crush some more pepper if you wish.
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When serving add some lemon/lime juice and some chilli if you wish to spice it up a little. Go for it! Deliciosso!!