Soup of fish and seafood

How to prepare a fish and seafood soup.

A very simple soup recipe , in this case with the added value of a little seafood.

It is a great option for a tasty and light first course that goes with a more powerful second such as rice, stew or pot.

A fish recipe suitable for a special dinner with your partner or family, on specific dates or just for the sake of it. It is very rich and tasty, and although it takes a little work it is very easy to do.

Most importantly, it does not require large ingredients, with a little monkfish, cabrilla and some prawns it is made. Although it accepts many variations, such as the seafood soup with rice with great success on the blog.

The most important point to prepare a delicious soup is to make a good fish fumet.  To do this, we must choose a fish from the so-called “rock” fish that provides a lot of flavor and substance to the broth. These live on shallow rocky bottoms where they feed on small crustaceans, mollusks and other fish.

One of the most common fish for these elaborations is the scorpionfish. A medium sized fish, red in color and very tasty meat, well known for the scorpionfish recipe .

As the scorpionfish fishing season begins in April, we have purchased a very similar fish called “goat”, “cabrita” or “cabrilla” . We have all the flavor of the sea in this delicious recipe, I hope you like it and cheer up with it.

Before cooking the soup. Clams

1. Like all molluscs, clams must pass through an expedition center or a treatment plant before being put on the market for consumption.
2. Even so, we have to remove the sand that they usually bring so that it is not annoying and does not spoil the recipe.
3. It is convenient to have them about three hours before cooking them in a saucepan or large plastic container.
4. We must add water, a good handful of coarse salt and change the water three or four times.
5. Clams drink and often drop a lot of sand. Do not panic because it is a sign that they are of good quality. They will open and take out “the siphon” to drink, if we touch them they will close quickly.
6. To steam them, we wash the clams very well in cold water and remove all the impurities.
7. We put to heat half a glass of water in the saucepan. When the water starts to boil add the clams.
8. We leave them cooking covered for a minute (no more) and as soon as they are all open we remove them with a slotted spoon.
9. Let cool and reserve for the end of the soup. We are not going to throw away the cooking water.
10. Strain them and leave in a glass because we will use it in this fish and seafood soup.

Preparation of seafood for the fumet of our soup

1. We begin by separating the tails of the prawns from the rest of the shell.
2. This process is carried out on the saucepan where we will then skip them so that the juices that are released remain inside it.
3. In that saucepan we pour a sheet of extra virgin olive oil over high heat.
4. We are cooking the heads and casings of the tails of the prawns. They will release their juices with the flavor of the sea. Little by little they will turn red like when they are grilled.
5. When they are deep red, we remove them and strain all the resulting liquid into the saucepan where we are going to prepare the fumet.
6. Variant, we pour a glass of hot water on the carcasses or shrimp heads and give it a crushed with the mixer. With this we achieve a more substantial broth and also a more reddish color.
7. The “cabrilla” will come already gutted from the fish shop (but always with a head).
8. We separate the two loins, we go over to remove the thorns and cut into cubes.
9. To the monkfish tail we remove the skin that it can bring. We separate the meat from the central bone and cut into cubes of the same size.

Preparation of the fumet or fish broth

1. To the casserole (for the fumet) we add the head and the central bones of the fish.
2. Add about 2 liters of water and bring to a boil. When we see the first bubbles, we go down to low heat.
3. We salt to taste and cook for 40 minutes. We are not going to spend time cooking because if the bones are broken they can add a bad taste to the fumet.
4. Occasionally we remove the foam that is forming on the surface.

Preparation of fish and seafood soup

1. Once we have our broth ready, strain the amount we want into another casserole. In our case of the initial 2 liters, we have used one and a half liters for 4 diners.
2. Here comes the trick of this soup to make us thicker and juicier. We peel the potato, the carrot and wash them with tap water.
3. Grate both finely on the fumet, so that during the last touch of cooking they melt perfectly.
4. We put on medium heat so that the broth does not lose temperature. We add the fish, which when diced will take a mere 10 minutes to cook.
5. When you have 2 minutes to cook the fish.
6. Add the prawn tails, clams and their broth to the pot so that they are integrated with the rest of the ingredients. At this point we try salt in case we want to rectify.

Serve hot on the table and decorate with a sprig of fresh parsley.

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for fish and seafood soup . Do not miss any detail so that it is delicious.

Tips for a yummy seafood chowder

• The elaboration of the fish stock or fumet is very important, it is the basis of our soup and therefore we must prepare it without haste so that it acquires a marine flavor. The leftover parts of cleaning seafood and fish are the essential elements to make a good fumet .
• At the final time of preparing the seafood fumet, I like to add a spicy touch to the soups. Do it to the taste of the cook or the diners. It can be with a little spicy La Vera paprika or a little touch of chilli. It would be added in the elaboration of this fumet.