Fish Soup-Stew

You must be wondering... 'Fish soup? Er... wouldn't it be too overwhelming on the fishy taste and smell? Ugh' Well, I shall let you decide for yourself because everyone has different taste on fish : ) We were watching a TV program on BBC called 'Two Greedy Italians' and they cooked up this dish and it looked so yummy. And so, we've decided to give it a try... how bad can it be, right?

The ingredients are fairly simple and easy to get. And here goes the cooking part...

First, slice up some onion and garlic. Then fry them briefly in a pot with some cooking oil. Add in a can of chopped tomatoes (or equal amount of fresh tomatoes), some proper red wine and a fresh chilli into the pot. We didn't have fresh chilli, hence, used dried chilli as an alternative. Then for herbs, put in parlsey and fennel seeds. Well, I modified it and just poured in my handy bottle of mixed herbs : P
Last but not least, season with some pepper and salt, and then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. If you find that the soup texture is too thick, you can add in water.

As the soup is simmering away, we can start putting in the condiments. First, I put a proper fish - with head, tail and a skeleton... into the soup to boil. Hehe. You know lah, everything in the UK are all packed nicely with just meat only, rarely with bones : P Anyways...

Depending on the size of the fish, let it simmer for at least 10 minutes. Then take the fish out and remove the meat from its frame. The bones and head can be thrown away. Once this is done, you can start putting other seafood condiments such as mussels, prawns and other types of fish meat into your soup. Remember to put the meat that takes the longest time to cook first, followed by the shorter time. Prawns should be inserted last as it cooks very fast. For this attempt, I bought a sea bass and a tray of fish mix (used in fish pie)... Wished I've bought some prawns and mussels though : ( As you are putting in the seafood, season the soup with salt as the taste may start to become bland due to more ingredients in the soup.

Once the rest of the seafood is cooked, put the deboned fish back into the soup, give it a good stir to mix up everything proper and it is ready to serve!

We served it with pasta, but bread is fine too! 

The outcome of this dish was somewhat different than what we would have expected. There is a hint of spicyness and at the same time, it felt like we were having Assam Laksa all over again. Well, I guess it is like the Italian version of it : ) One thing to note is, do not put too much fish as what we did. Otherwise, it would be too fishy! Hahahahaha! And another point to remember is to have a moderate portion of seafood ingredients. We were stuffed after having a bowl of it. Oh yes, I would recommend to start the cooking with high heat and then change it to medium heat. Mine almost got burnt... that's because we changed our cooking hobs and I can't gauge the heat. Rosak liao! And and AND... always stir the soup too!

TheLoyalFan says: ' Tasted like the western version of Assam Laksa. Will need to use less fish the next time and make sure fishes are of the "fresh smelling" kind. Very filling...'

Seems like we're both agreeing on the same points. Will I try this again? Yea, I would but not so soon though. Maybe next month or later... If you want to find out who are the chefs in that TV program, please feel free to check it out from here!

Till then, keep nomming!