Zander Soup: Rich Homemade Fish Soup with Vegetables

Name: Zander Soup: Rich Homemade Fish Soup with Vegetables
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Zander 1 zander; Carrot 1 zander; Onion 1 zander; Potato 3-4 potatoes; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Parsley 1-2 sprigs; Soup roots (celery, parsnip, parsley) to taste; Bay leaf, salt, black peppercorns, allspice to taste

A thick, rich zander soup, full of vegetables and big pieces of fish, is not just zander ukha made from fish freshly caught. Ukha tastes much better cooked on the riverbank over a fire, as a sort of badge of honor for the fishing trip, whereas soup is made at home for family and friends. It is a homemade fish soup from natural ingredients, and the word “naturel” always makes us think of something completely natural. A dish with “naturel” in its name strikes us, even subconsciously, as something wholly genuine and delicious.

In any dictionary, naturale means “natural”, “of nature”, “unadulterated” and so on. The great writer Mikhail Bulgakov, in his immortal novel “The Master and Margarita”, stirred up the reader's interest quite boldly in the restaurant dish “portion-sized zander au naturel”. It means the zander is cooked practically in its own juices, with nothing extra.

I remember that as kids we sometimes caught zander and cooked it without spices, just lightly salted. We coated it in clay and baked it in a pit of embers left from the campfire. Then we cracked the hardened clay shell and ate the scalding hot but incredibly tasty fish with our hands. All the more so as zander is a delicate, delicious fish with practically no small bones, which spoil life for every fish lover.

Cooking portion-sized little zander “the Bulgakov way” is impossible these days because of the minimum size limit for zander that may be caught. A zander of that size is already almost a full-grown fish. And my conscience does not allow cooking zander of 200-250 g, as the vast majority of recipes suggest.

Pieces of fish poached in a rich fish broth with vegetables. For the broth we will use the parts of the zander that are usually thrown away: the bones, fins, head and tail.

I suggest making zander soup with the fillet cut into large pieces. For this, cook a homemade fish soup from the leftover fish, or from less valuable small fish, adding as few spices as possible to the broth. We will cook portion pieces of zander “au naturel”. It is every bit as good! We will try to “improve” the flavor of the fish with spices and additions as little as we can, using only what is usually added when making zander ukha.

More with fish

Homemade Ukha Fish Soup

Canned Sardine Fish Soup

Fish Soup with Shrimp

Fish Soup with Cream

Mimosa Salad with Sardines

Ingredients

2 servings

Zander 1 zander
Carrot 1 zander
Onion 1 zander
Potato 3-4 potatoes
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Parsley 1-2 sprigs
Soup roots (celery, parsnip, parsley) to taste
Bay leaf, salt, black peppercorns, allspice to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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For this first homemade course it is best to use a small fish of 1-1.5 kg. In a larger fish the meat is firmer and better suited to ukha or stuffed zander. Though it is a matter of taste. To my mind, a zander of about a kilo has tender, “protein-rich” flesh and the fewest noticeable bones, which makes it ideal for soup, and children will especially like it.
Scale the zander, cut off the fins, and remove the innards and gills. Cut off the head and tail and set them aside for the broth. Cut the fillets off the body together with the skin, carefully removing the large bones and especially the remains of the dorsal fin, where there are many sharp, very small bones. Very carefully score the skin of each piece, not deep at all. This is so that the zander keeps its shape while simmering in the soup, otherwise the fillet will curl up into a tube.
Next, cut the fillet into portion pieces of 70-80 g. The size is up to you, but I recommend pieces no wider than the length of a matchstick, that is, no more than 5 cm.
Make 3-4 cups of broth from the zander head, tail, fins and bones. Put the fish scraps in a pot, cover with water and simmer over low heat for 20 mins. Strain the broth through a sieve, not cheesecloth, or the taste of cheesecloth will haunt you forever.
Peel the onion and cut a cross into it down to the middle. Peel the carrot and cut it into rounds, sticks or cubes, in large pieces. The carrot gives zander soup its unique, barely sweet flavor. Peel one or two small cloves of garlic. Add a small piece of each of the soup roots, to taste. Parsley root, celery and parsnip are all excellent, but just a little, as they are very aromatic.
Into the strained broth add the onion, the sliced carrot and the potato cut into large cubes, all at once. Flatten the peeled garlic with a knife and add it to the broth. Season with a pinch of salt. Put 1-2 allspice berries, 8-10 black or mixed peppercorns and 1-2 bay leaves into a sachet bag or a piece of nylon cloth. Tie up the spices and put them in the broth.
Bring the broth to a boil and cook over very low heat, covered, for at least 30 mins. The broth should not bubble, only barely simmer. The potato in the soup needs to start falling apart and blending with the broth. That makes the zander soup quite thick, somewhat like potato soup.
When the vegetables in the fish broth are cooked and the potato has started to break down, take out the bag of spices and the roots and discard them. Add more salt to taste. Put the zander fillet pieces into the gently simmering soup. When the soup comes to a boil, turn the heat to the lowest setting that still keeps it simmering, and cook the zander soup, covered, for 12-15 mins.
When done, put the pieces of zander on a plate and add the pieces of carrot. It is best to throw the onion away, as few people like it. Pour the rich soup over the fish and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. If you like, season with freshly ground black pepper.
Serve zander soup hot only. In fact, fish soups of any kind, be it soup, chowder or zander ukha, are best served hot. On cooling, the soup sets a little, but it is not worth reheating. Fish bones and heads contain a lot of gelatinous substances, and as it cools the soup will most likely turn into aspic of zander. Of course, if it is for children, let the soup cool down at least a little.