Friday was the fish soup day. We knew it’s about to be a challenge, but didn’t expect that much of a mess. We started pretty late that day, waiting for Anglo B to finish their Menu Regional we’re about to make next week. A big delivery of fresh fish and fish bones arrived. For a good fish soup there has to be at least 4 different types of fish, as Chef explained, so this is what we got.
Monstrous fish bones
This fish is a bit poisonous
Crabs, fresh but not alive
The verity of fish
A recipe with spice, it's about time, but the it had its revenge on laundry day
A selection of vegetables
This is the fish portion every one of us received
Small crabs
Extra vergin olive oil for the Aioli
The kitchen is almost ready
Menu of the day. It's actually only half, after erasing the first part
Chef explains about the different fish and their characteristics
First mission: Fumet de poisson. It's not a real stock because cooking time is short. All the fish bones cut and placed in a huge pot
White wine, water and the B.G. (bouquet garni)
The Fumet was prepared on pairs. Rob and I were together, straining the liquid with a huge ladle
Let it simmer about until necessary
In the meanwhile, Fried my crabs and fish. We didn't filet them this time due to lack of time but we'll learn how to do it in the fish week
Sweating the veg in butter
Removing the veg and cooking the tomatoes with the spices
Return the veg and fish in the pot and adding white wine and some Pastis to Flambè. Cover with the Fumet de poissons and cook for 25min
This was the slaughtering of the soup with the mixer. Everything: the shells, the crabs, the bones, the scales, crushed and mixed together
A demo for the Aioli. Start with purèe de Ail (garlic, only if it's perfectly purèed it would work), two egg yolks, pinch of salt
Start whisking and adding olive oil gradually
Whisk well, in the end a dash of lemon juice
My finished product, one minute too late
What happened is that we started so late we had to finish on time. It was a complicated day, first time handling fish, cleaning their inside etc. We only had 2 mixers and most people waited for them for a long time. Chef was counting back the time left (8 min, 5 min, 3 min, 1 min, done). I was close to presenting on time but failed, a minute too late (aiming for a second boil just before presenting). He would not taste any of the late soups, which were about 80% of the group. That’s how it is in real life apparently. I tasted my own soup and thought it was seasoned well to my taste but a bit too thin (the chervil sunk). The Aioli was good and the garlic taste was very strong.
Then a new race of cleaning begun. It was a hot and humid day and cleaning was hard. We had to clean fast but the kitchen was awfully dirty and spotted with parts of fish and orange circles of soup everywhere. It took a while. I finished that day looking like that (zoom in to see better):
Tired, sweaty and dirty, smelling of fish, but happy!
When I came home I reheated my soup, soaked it with toasted bread (also taken from the kitchen) spread with the Aioli and it was sooo good!!!
goood!
I can almost smell the fish 🙂
You’ve had a hard day!!
So chef’s put all bones and that stuff in the mixer and serve it? Not so appealing to me.. 🙂
But at least it was good!! And looks good as well..
i hate it when my chervil sinks!!! don’t you? 😉
the soup looks great – and I actually like the fact that everything is crushed together in the mixer and not thrown away… but you already know that, i’m sure, even if i don’t mention it…. “waste not want not”
I’m already known to be the don’t waste anything girl. “Ask mashav if she wants it before it goes to the trash” but they do say it laughing.
What is a CHERVIL ?
can you make soup without a chervil so it will not sink????
that is exactly the food I am hoping that next year you will cook here so we will be able to taste
Chervil translated to Hebrew is צ’רביל
Seriously.
Anyway it’s just a herb like parsley but had a milder taste and with very small nice ploches to garnish with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chervil
[…] the “white” veal stock for the Potage Saint Germain and also Fumet de poissons for the Fish soup, which is like stock but you should not call it “Fond” because the fish takes 1.5h to […]