Basque Fish Soup - (Sopa De Pescado a La Vasca)

Yield > 6
Keys : Clams Mussels Fish Ocean Soups Stews Seafood Spanish
Spain European Mediterranean Spanish Hot
Ingredients :
3 doz Mussels
4 lb Small whole fish - cleaned
cut several pieces
(any white fish can be used:
rockfish and small sea bass,
for example)
4 med Garlic cloves minced
3 med Carrots diced
2 x Leeks or 4 to 5 small
shallots minced
6 tbl Olive oil
1/4 cup Cognac
3 slc White bread center portion
only
1 sprg Thyme
1 x Bay leaf
10 cup Water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbl Butter rounded tbsp
Method :
• Fry garlic, carrots, onion, and leeks or shallots in olive oil
very slowly for 15 minutes. Add a sprig of thyme and a bay
leaf. Put in fish and fry gently for 3 minutes. Heat cognac, pour
it over fish and vegetables, light it, and let flames die. Pour in
10 cups water, let it come to a boil over fairly high flame and
boil slowly for 15 minutes. While it boils, open the mussels in a
saucepan over moderate heat with a little water. Strain juice
through a kitchen towel and add it to the fish and vegetables.
• Remove mussels from shell and set aside. Cut or tear the
white part of three slices of bread into small bits. Strain the
soup into another saucepan, add the bits of bread, and cook it
in the soup 10 minutes more. Separate all the fish meat from
the bones. Strain the soup a second time, forcing undissolved
bits of bread through strainer. Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer fish meat and shelled mussels in the soup for 5
minutes before serving; add butter just before removing from
fire, stir to mix, and serve very hot.
• Comments: The quality of fish soup depends on the
quality of the fish. The above way of preparing it is Basque,
but the kind of fish used can be varied according to what is
locally available. You might use a head of hake, some crabs,
and a few crayfish. Or you might use, as suggested above,
mussels, rockfish, and sea bass. All fish and shellfish must be
cleaned, but the heads, bones, and shelfish carcasses (all of
which are strained out afterward) are cooked in the soup to
give it flavor.