Thursday 22 December 2016

psarosoupa - fish soup a la grece

Fish soup - greek style

A simple soup with all the flavour of the fish, enhanced only with carrot, celery and a little lemon juice.

Take a variety of fresh fish.    Any nice fleshy fish with no bones is my favourite. Today we have 2 fish called 'pontikia'. 

Scale the fish, take out the guts.  Sprinkle the clean fish with salt and lemon juice.  Leave the head, don't de-bone.  The whole fish is tastier than the fillet.







Peel and cut into large chunks a few potatoes and a carrot or two.  Chop some celery and an onion.  I also used a leek in this soup. 

Boil a pot of water and add the vegetables.  Cook till soft, around half and hour.  Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and keep them warm in the oven.





Bring the water back to the boil and now add the fish.  If they don't fit into the pot whole then cut into 2 or three big pieces.
Add salt and some olive oil, about a small wine glass.


The fish need to cook for 10 to 15 minutes.  Lift them very carefully without the fish breaking up and add them to the dish of vegetables.  Pour over both a little fresh olive oil and lemon juice.

To the remaining soup add half a small wine glass of rice and more water if it has reduced too much.   Boil slowly for 20 minutes till the rice is soft.  Add the juice of one lemon.


And it is ready to eat.

Ladle the soup into a plate and put in a piece or two of carrot and potato.  Now take the head and the backbone off the fish and serve chunks either in the soup or on a separate plate.  Watch out for bones.

We usually eat the soup with a little fish, potato and carrot.  Then we finish off with more potato and fish with a little mayonnaise.


Kali Orexi


6 comments:

  1. That really does sound good. I don't think I've ever made Fish Soup.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fish soup does not seem to be on the english menu, more mediterranean. Spain, France, Portugal, Italy all have their specialities. Much of our soup is made from small fish which are boiled for their juices only.

      Delete
  2. My uncle made this soup for us when we visited. He also took my hubby to th market with him to pick the fish.
    Hubby loved it.
    I wasn't feeling the best that day. Had an upset tummy. So he just made me the rice with a little lemon juice over it
    I really wanted all the fish and veggies. But it was not to be.
    Might have to make my own I think xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is a real typical soup. Oh that rice and lemon juice. The universal remedy for upset stomachs here.

      You must make some of your own fish soup...to satisfy that your soul! That's not quite what I mean, my english is deserting me. You need to eat the soup that you didnt eat then.. I guess.

      oof....sometimes my mother in law would thicken this with egg and lemon. Really tasty on a cold winter's day. Sometimes I put grated tomato in instead of lemon juice.

      Delete
  3. We don't eat much fish LA. But this does look good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'll have to come to Greece to enjoy this properly...the right place, atmosphere, a glass of rough white, blue skies, a slight sweat on the brow.

      Living on an island and having a fisherman in the family we eat a lot of fish.

      Delete