"The Soup Bible" is without a doubt one of the best soup cookbooks out there!
Yummy, yummy fish in my tummy!
Ever since my mother-in-law gave me “The Soup Bible: All the Soups You Will Ever Need in One Inspirational Collection
They’re just so easy to make! At least the ones that I used to make all the time anyway, which were of the vegetable variety.
All you gotta do is chop up a bunch of veggies, mix them up in a stockpot with some low-sodium chicken broth, then blend the final batch in a blender on high for a minute or two and voila… instant meal in no time, flat!
Although The Soup Bible
My newly purchased "Reader's Digest: The Ultimate Soup Cookbook"
That cookbook? It’s appropriately named “The Ultimate Soup Cookbook: Over 900 Family-Favorite Recipes
I’ve already had the chance to try out quite a few recipes from the cookbook… although just to warn you, I never really had the chance to stray far from the fish and seafood soups chapter! Basically, stay tuned for many, many, maaaaany blog posts coming soon that will be featuring soups of the seafood variety.
You can blame it on me watching too many episodes of the Iron Chef America TV show recently… all of which just happened to feature seafood as the secret ingredient. I’m talking lobster and bigeye tuna… oh my!
Bouillabaisse (definition): A Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille, France
In this “classic” version, the seafood used in the fish soup include fillets of sole/flounder/halibut, sea scallops, lobster meat and minced clams.
The end result is a lot of chunky seafood goodness in a deliciously seasoned vegetable broth.
I made the effort to take photographs throughout the entire cooking process. Hopefully the pictures will help you visualize the steps needed to successfully make this “Classic Bouillabaisse” fish soup recipe. Enjoy!
Reader’s Digest’s “Classic Bouillabaisse” Mediterranean Fish Soup Recipe (from France)
Ingredients:
- 8 oz fresh or thawed frozen sole, flounder, or halibut fillets
- 8 oz fresh or thawed frozen sea scallops
- 1 frozen small rock lobster tail (8 oz), partially thawed, or 8 oz lobster meat
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 3/4 cups chopped tomatoes or 1 can (14 1/2 oz) low-sodium tomatoes, undrained, cut up
- 1 cup dry white wine or low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp fennel seed or celery seed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp saffron threads, crushed (optional)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 can (6 1/2 oz) minced clams
Directions:
- Rinse fish, scallops and lobster and pat dry
- Cut fish into 2″ pieces
- Halve large scallops
- Halve lobster tail lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 6 portions
- In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat
- Add onion and garlic and saute 5 min or until onion is tender
- Stir in broth, tomatoes, wine, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, fennel seed, salt, saffron (if desired) and cayenne
- Bring to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 30 min
- Line a large sieve with 2 layers of cheesecloth and set in a large saucepan
- Strain vegetable mixture, then discard vegetables and seasonings after straining
- Bring remaining filtered liquid to a boil
- Add fish, scallops, lobster meat and clams
- Return to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring, for 4 minutes or until fish flakes easily and scallops and lobster are opaque
Serves: 6
Partially thawed frozen lobster claws used in Classic Bouillabaisse recipe
Weight of lobster claws BEFORE thawing and removing shells = 19.5 oz. Weight of lobster claw meat AFTER de-shelling = 10.2 oz.
10 oz thawed frozen sea scallops (before de-shelling)
11 oz fresh fish fillets
2 minced garlic cloves and 1 chopped large yellow onion
Prepared broth ingredients (clockwise, from top left): 1 tsp dried thyme, 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley, 1 tsp fennel seed, 2 bay leaves and 1 3/4 cups chopped tomatoes
White wine (that we had received as a Christmas present!) used in making the broth
TOP: Added 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, 1 3/4 cups chopped tomatoes and 1 cup dry white wine to sauteed onions and garlic. BOTTOM: Simmering onions, garlic, broth, tomatoes and wine mixture.
TOP: Added 2 bay leaves and 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley. MIDDLE: Added 1 tsp dried thyme and 1 tsp fennel seed. BOTTOM: Added 1/2 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
BEFORE & AFTER boiling and simmering broth ingredients for 30 minutes
Straining and filtering the vegetable broth mixture with a cheesecloth-covered sieve (followed by discarding the vegetables and seasoning)
BEFORE & AFTER filtering vegetable broth mixture by cheesecloth
Close-up views of soup after adding fish fillets, fresh sea scallops, partially thawed lobster claw meat and one 6 1/2 oz can of minced clams
Finally, the finished product! 2 bowls of Classic Bouillabaisse Mediterranean fish soup. Mmm...
. “Reader’s Digest: The Ultimate Soup Cookbook” cover image courtesy of Amazon.com. All photographs ©2012 Karina of KnittingandPurling.com.
