Simple Fish Soup
Ingredients
- 1 shallot
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 4 c. chicken stock
- 1 c. milk
- 1 c. buttermilk
- 1 lb. frozen fish filets (flounder, whitefish, cod, etc.)
- 2-3 russet potatoes
- 2-3 scallions
- salt
- pepper to taste
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/4" dice. Set aside.
Chop the shallot. You can finely mince it or simply slice it, which I think is better.
Melt the butter in a pan that you think a soup would fit in. Fry the shallots in the butter with a bit of salt.
Add the potatoes and slightly cook them. They probably won't get brown. Just start the cooking process.
Add enough of the chicken stock to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil, drop the temperature to low, and cover with at lid. Cook until the potatoes are done. As the potatoes are small, this should not take long (10-15 minutes). The potatoes should be able to be easily pierced with a knife.
Add the milk and the buttermilk. Add the frozen filets. Bring again to a boil and drop the temperature to low, and cover with a lid. You want to braise the fish until it's done. You can put the fish in frozen, no problem there. A pound of frozen flounder will take 5-7 minutes.
Now add chicken stock until you achieve the volume of soup you want. Less stock will make a thicker soup, more stock will make a thinner soup. Heat until you achieve the desired temperature.
Cut the scallions and add to the soup. A great presentation idea is to cut the scallions on the bias, so you end up with nice looking diamond shapes. Add freshly cracked pepper.
Serve with a good bread.
Notes
My wife and I were going to entertain, and we didn't know what to serve on a winter day. I didn't want to do anything too thick, because the weather was rather nice for late November. Fish is light yet satisfying, so I decided to come up with something. The buttermilk adds some acidity which goes well with the fish. You could simply squeeze some lemon on top at the finish but I think the buttermilk provides a better mouthfeel. Some dill or fennel would work well with this recipe.