Fish Soup with Fennel

How to prepare the fish and vegetables

1. To make a tasty fish soup, we will take fennel bulb as the main aromatic vegetable. The specific smell of fennel reminds me of a cough medicine from childhood. But when cooked, the smell almost immediately goes away, and the finished fennel is a pleasure to eat. In the end I even regretted not putting more fennel into the soup.

   Gardeners usually don’t think much of fennel. People call it pharmacy dill. But wild fennel grows all around the Mediterranean, in Europe, Asia, America and even Australia.

   

   Any white or red sea fish will do: salmon, perch, hake, kingklip, flounder, monkfish, sea bass, gilt-head bream. Strong-smelling fish such as mackerel are better left out of fish soup. I think even river pike perch or pike would work well.

2. Prepare the fish and shrimp. Thaw the fish, preferably by moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator. Cut off the fillets, removing all the bones. Cut the fish into large pieces. Pour boiling water over the shrimp to thaw them. If the shrimp are raw, “gray”, they need to be boiled. Peel the thawed shrimp.

   

3. Cut the potatoes and onion. Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices up to 1 cm thick.

   

   Peel the onion and dice it. It doesn’t have to be very fine. I think even thick strips are fine, as you prefer.

   

4. Cut the fennel. Remove the outer leaves of the fennel bulb if they are damaged. Cut the bulb in half lengthwise and slice it crosswise, the way you cut the potatoes. I also advise not throwing away the remains of the green stalks, they are very tasty cooked.

   The amount of fennel for the soup is tricky. My bulb weighed 250 grams. I cut off a third. But I think you can use more, even the whole bulb, and the soup will only be better for it.

   

How to fry the vegetables with the fish

1. It is convenient to cook fish soup either in a wide, low pot or in a deep saucepan or frying pan. Besides, the vegetables are fried before boiling. By the way, I’ll say right away that the frying is done over high heat, so you need to stir and not get distracted.

2. Fry the onion with the herbs. Pour 3-4 tbsp of olive oil into the pot you chose for the soup. Heat the oil over high heat until it gives off a characteristic smell. Fry the chopped onion in the oil until soft. Salt the onion, add 2-3 bay leaves and 1 tsp of dried herbs from the Provençal mix: basil, marjoram, rosemary, sage, savory, oregano, thyme, mint. You can mix it yourself, all the herbs in equal parts, or you can buy it, such mixes are sold in any supermarket. By the way, it is one of the few mixes I buy without fear of “E” additives and chemistry.

   

3. Fry the vegetables. Keep frying the onion for 2-3 mins, add the chopped potatoes and fennel, and grate in one clove of garlic. Also add a whole chili pepper, which will give the soup a barely noticeable aroma and flavor. If you want the fish soup to be spicy, cut off the tip of the pepper or make a slit in it. If you like fierce heat, you can chop the pepper.

   

   Fry the vegetables for 5-6 mins, stirring from time to time.

4. Add the shrimp and pieces of fish. Fry for 3 more mins.

   

How to cook the soup and make the croutons

1. Pour a full cup (200 ml) of dry white wine into the pot with the vegetables. I’m not telling you to look for expensive wine. Natural table wine will do fine. As soon as the wine boils, stir everything gently and reduce the heat. Cover and cook for 5-6 mins.

2. Add boiling water from the kettle (about 800 ml), so that the total amount of liquid is about one liter. Cook the fish soup covered for 15 mins from the moment it comes to a boil. It should boil gently, and the liquid must never bubble hard.

   

3. While the soup is cooking, make the croutons. A baguette, or a French baguette as many people say, works best. Those long loaves, up to half a meter. Cut the baguette into 2 cm slices. You won’t have too many, so don’t be shy. Fry the baguette slices in a dry, very hot frying pan, best of all a grill pan with a ridged bottom. Fry until browned.

   

4. Let the fried baguette cool and rub it with a clove of garlic. By the way, this is already a great appetizer. You can simply eat it or eat it with any pâté and salad.

   

5. After 15 mins of cooking, add finely chopped parsley or dill to the fish soup. Cook for another 2-3 mins, then turn off the heat and let the soup stand for 5 mins.

   

Serving

1. Ladle the soup into bowls. Put a slice of fried garlic baguette in each bowl and take the potatoes, fish, shrimp and fennel out of the soup. Divide all the vegetables and fish among the portions.

   

   Pour the broth over the fish and vegetables and serve right away, together with the croutons.

   

   I confess that the day after cooking I had to make it again. I liked the fish soup so much, and there was still some fennel left.