Seafood soup
On Christmas Day our first dinner course was this fabulous seafood soup, courtesy of husband Ramón. It was delicious and, though a wee bit of a “strain” to make, (the prawns and mussels have to be cleared of sea debris several times) it´s well worth it. Here´s Ramón´s recipe – go ahead and try it, you´ll love it!
INGREDIENTS:
1 kilo of mussels (mejillones)
1 or 2 monkfish tails (colas de rape)
12 king prawns (gambones)
A [sherry] glass of dry sherry (copita de jeréz, eg. fino or manzanilla)
1 potato
1 stick celery (apio)
1 leek (puerro)
A few peppercorns (granos de pimienta negra)
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
1 cup vermicelli noodles (fideos)
1 boiled egg
Half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (pimienta de cayena)
2 bay leafs (hojas de laurél)
Fresh garlic cloves
Fresh coriander (cilantro)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
YOU WILL NEED
A large sieve, a medium pan, a large pot and a blender.
THE STOCK
The secret of any soup is the stock. Here we need 3 to 4 pints of well reduced and sieved fish and seafood stock. Monkfish, though an ugly fish with an ugly name, is one of the best for stock, since it has firm flesh and jellyish bones, giving fantastic flavour and a great consistency.
Ramón in his new pinny, a gift from our friend Karen.
- Steam the mussels in about a half pint of water and keep the juices. Sieve and filter until clear. Discard any mussels that don´t open.
- Shell the king prawns and keep the tails. Boil the remaining heads and shells in another half pint of water. Sieve and filter until clear and add to the mussel stock.
- Simmer the monkfish tails in two pints of water with a bay leaf, some salt and a couple of whole peppercorns for about half an hour or until it has reduced about 25% and the fish is tender.
- Remove the tails and separate the flesh from the bones. Keep the former and discard the latter.
- Sieve and filter and add to the shellfish stock.
THE SOUP BASE
Vegetables provide lots of flavour and natural goodness to soups. The potato acts as a thickener.
- Heat two tablespoonfuls of olive oil in a pot and when hot, add the leek, potato, tomato and celery, all cut into small pieces.
- Season with a little salt and pepper.
- Add two cloves of garlic, diced, and the cayenne pepper.
- Once the garlic has softened slightly, add the stock and allow to simmer for half an hour.
- In the meantime, boil two eggs until hard (12 minutes). Shell them and split them in half to separate the whites from the yolks. Add the yolks to the soup and process the lot in a blender until smooth, sieving again if necessary. Reserve the whites.
FINISHING UP
The soup is now ready for all the ”bits” we´re going enjoy to be incorporated:
- the king prawn tails, diced
- the fish meat, flaked
- the white of the boiled eggs, cubed
- a cup and a half of vermicelli, which will provide the carbohydrates. You can add the sherry here too and allow the alcohol to simmer off. When the pasta is done, add a few sprigs of fresh, finely chopped, coriander.
ENJOY!
None left!
About Mo
It looks and sounds ‘del-li-cio-so’!( Hope he makes it if I visit you again) especially as it is not ruined by onion (as are so many seafood soups) overpowering the fish. Though, frankly, after such a feasty (my own word) soup , I don’t think I could manage a second course. Feliz anho a los tres!! xx
We hope you visit again! Then we´ll make you whatever you like. Interesting point about the onion – I´d never thought of that, though maybe Ramón did. After this soup we had roast lamb so you can imagine …. And tonight it´ll be solomillo de no sé que con patatas de alguna manera. Will I ever be able to lose that extra five kilos, oh all right, more like 7 but that´s an embarrassing stone. Hope you and Jack have a Guid New Year and that we´ll get a chance to meet up in 2013! xxx
I just asked Ramón about the onion and he said that leek works better for fish soup!
Writing as a Canarian (resident) first and vegetarian second, I’d recommend a caldo de papas. I’ve used the recipe on the official tourist board’s site and heartily recommend it. Here’s the link: http://www.grancanaria.com/patronato_turismo/Recetas.5946.0.html
That looks lovely Matthew – we´ll definitely try it. The other recipes look really interesting too. We´ve got veggie friends coming over in a few months and I need to get my skates on and have more vegitarian recipes handy. We do tend to overuse jamón serrano and many dishes just don´t need meat at all.
Soup looks wonderful Maureen! If only I liked seafood!! Iain might have a go and make it for those with a wider palette than mine! Ramon looks good in ‘his’ peeny lol It’s from Gillian Kyle by the way. Hope 2013 is good to you all and brings you continued good health and happiness xx
I do realise Karen that some folk just can´t eat seafood. I´m fussy about it too so actually prefer a soup with a fishy flavour rather than a plate of mussels (too cheough) (how DO you spell that?). The peeny´s lovely, will check out the designer. Maybe I´ll get a wee shot of it but since Ramón´s off work till January, I won´t get near it till then. Have a great New Year yourself Karen, and all your family, and thanks for the inspiring gift!
I’m taking a guess that you had no need to by the other half the “Rick Stein’s Spain” cookbook this year ? Sounds like he has things covered.
Hi Dan, nooooooo!!! Ramón has his own cache of books, though I did get him a Jamie one last year. However I´ll take a look at the Stein book, don´t want to pass up a chance to get in Rammy´s good books. When I married him I had no idea there was this side to him and it´s developed over the years. He´s still an amateur of course but most of the stuff he tries out works really well. How about you Mr. Grumpy? Are you too grumpy to parade around in your peeny?
Sounds great and thanks for the step-by-step instructions. I always seem to leave off crucial parts in my recipes so they can be like doing the cooking equivalent of Sudoku puzzles.
P.S. You know what Ramón’s got that I ain’t got? Probably lots of stuff but in this case I’m talking about his classy apron. I have to get one instead of ruining perfectly good clothes or cooking in rags or in swim trunks and shirtless in the summer.
Don´t beat yoursef up Leftbanker, this is a new pinny from Scotland so of course it looks classy. However, the frilly one he was using before …..personally I prefer to ruin good clothes since at my age shirtless would put my guests off my food! This is soup is finicky but easy so give it a go, it´s really tasty!
How is it called in Spanish, “sopa de pescado”?
Also, I am loving the word “pinny.” En mi vida he oído ésa. I am now going to say pinny all the time!!
Yes Kaley, or sopa de marisco, though if it had all been completey blended with no “bits” it would be a crema de marisco. As for pinny, I´m even being a bit posh with this (since SpainStruck is a very serious publication). In Scotland we say “peeny”. Cute, isn´t it?