Fish and shellfish soup
FISH AND SHELLFISH SOUP
Here’s a fragrant fish soup with Thai accents, low on fat and high on taste, and full of good New Year’s resolutions. First you make a pumpkin and vegetable soup base flavoured with lemongrass, chilli and coconut milk. Then you add slivers of crunchy-cooked vegetables, plus mussels, prawns (shrimp) and scallops. The final garnish is plenty of fresh coriander or coriander pesto. It’s great for entertaining, as the soup base can be prepared well ahead and the fish and vegetables trimmed and cleaned ready for the final 5-10 minutes’ cooking.
Serves 6 for a main course, more for a starter
Vegetable soup base
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1-2 fresh green chillies, seeded and finely chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 sticks celery, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
½ medium pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed, chopped
2 litres water
salt and pepper
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
Vegetable garnish
2 carrots, cut in thin strips
1 small courgette, cut in thin strips
1 small leek, cut in thin strips
Fish and garnish
1 kg mussels, scrubbed, beards removed (or 300g frozen mussels)
12 scallops
250g peeled prawns
lots of fresh coriander, chopped (or coriander pesto: 50g (LOTS!) of fresh coriander blended with 3 tbsp pine nuts, ½ tsp salt, 6 tbsp olive oil)
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan and fry the onion, garlic, chillies and lemongrass gently for 5 minutes or until just soft but not browned
- Add the leek, carrot and celery root and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring
- Add the potatoes, pumpkin, water, salt and pepper
- Simmer the soup for 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender
- Put the soup in the blender with the coconut milk, blend till smooth, strain it into a bowl (to remove the lemongrass fibres)
- Put the strained soup back into the pan
- Refrigerate it until just before serving time
If using fresh mussels, put them in a large pan without any liquid and put the lid on
- Turn the heat up high and cook till the mussels open – 3-4 minutes
- Put a colander lined with a fine cloth on top of a large bowl
- Tip the mussels into the colander, allowing the mussel juice to strain through into the bowl
- Shell the mussels and put them in the fridge with the scallops and peeled prawns
- Add the juice to the soup
Shortly before serving, bring the soup base back to the boil and toss in the carrot, courgette and leek strips
- Simmer till these are barely tender – 5 minutes or so
- Add the scallops, mussels and prawns to the soup
- Cook very briefly, just until the scallops are opaque – 3-4 minutes
- Check the seasoning of the soup and correct if necessary
- Spoon into serving bowls and sprinkle generously with chopped coriander or add a splodge of coriander pesto to each serving
