Clear seafood soup

Ingredients

• 2 cups of fish stock (see my note below on how to prepare this)
• 1 tsp of finely chopped garlic cloves
• ½ tsp finely chopped ginger
• ¼ tsp of white pepper powder (use black pepper powder if you do not have white pepper powder)
• 1 tsp of cornstarch mixed with 4 tbsp of fish stock (add more cornstarch if you need a thicker soup)
• Salt as per need
• ½ tsp mixed italian herbs (optional)
• ½ cup of seafood and vegetables (boneless fish pieces, prawns cut into small pieces, shredded onion etc.)
• 1 tsp of salted butter (Amul Butter)

Method

• Take a sauce pan and melt the butter on low heat
• Add the chopped garlic and ginger. Sauté this for a minute (do not let it brown)
• Add the fish stock, pepper powder and the mixed Italian herbs
• Add the cornstarch. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil for a minute and then lower the flame and let it cook for 4-5 minutes
• Add salt and the solid seafood and vegetables.
• Serve hot

Important Note

When you make any kind of soup, the stock is the most important ingredient. If you make a good stock, you can make a great soup.

Making of the fish stock.

When you buy fish, plan beforehand if you are planning to make fish stock or not. The fish with firm flesh and large bones like black pomfret, king fish, Indian Salmon, Silver/White pomfret etc. are very good for making the fish stock. Use the portions around the center bone (which is generally discarded if you make boneless fish fillets) and small pieces of fish like the tail end etc. to make the stock.

Prawns Stock

When you buy fresh prawns, use the cleaned shells of the prawns (after discarding the head portion) instead of fish to make the stock. Clean the shells thoroughly and then follow the same method. The shells will substitute the fish pieces in this case. You will definitely have some scum formation in this case which needs to be removed periodically. Use this stock again for making soups or for adding to prawns recipes instead of water. You can also add a little of this stock when making prawns biriyani or prawns fried rice to get a richer flavour.

Ingredients

• 2 litres of water.
• Fish pieces (mostly bones with some small pieces of fleshy portions of fish) - should be at least 250 gms or more
• Take two onions and quarter them
• Take a large carrot, clean and cut them into big pieces
• ½ tsp of white pepper powder
• Salt as per need

Method

• Boil the water, add the fish pieces and reduce the flame to low. Let it simmer for a while. Scoop out any scum that may come to the top. If you clean the fish bones/pieces thoroughly you may not see any scum.
• After about 15 minutes, add the onions, carrots, pepper powder and salt.
• Let it simmer for about 45 minutes more
• Take the pan off the stove and strain the liquid into another vessel
• Gather all the onions (will be very soft by now) and the carrot pieces and also the fish pieces.
• Remove as much of flesh as possible from the fish pieces/bones
• Cut the carrots into smaller pieces. Store these in the freezer to be used when making soups.
• Once the strained liquid has cooled, freeze it. You could convert them into ice cubes and store them in a container so that it becomes easy to use it later.
• The stock and fish pieces thus stored can be used whenever you need it and it can be kept in the freezer for a couple of months at least.