This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Riviera Fish Soup. It is a tomato based soup made from fish pieces and with flavour added from the fish head.
I bought a whole fish before reading the entire recipe and the reason behind the request for a whole fish (in case you were wondering, it was so you could boil up the soup with the fish head). In retrospect, I should have just bought fillets. I am not sure that the head added that much, and descaling and dissecting a whole fish was a pain in the butt. My fish fillets were sadly ragged, and I ended up cutting them up with the kitchen shears because it was easier. I made a half batch of soup only.
I find with Dorie's soups that my versions always end up too thick, and this was no exception. It is so thick that it is visually unappealing. I ate half the soup, and even though mentally I had logged that it tasted OK, I couldn't bring myself to eat the rest of this claggy concoction. The very look of it put me off. The fishy smell was also disconcerting.
To see what the other Doristas thought of this soup, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.
Sorry, I giggled and read Mark the part about the scaling, etc. being a pain in the butt. We agree, that all sounds like one for sure. I love soup (as you know by now) but for some reason, fish soup or stew is not included in that most of the time. Your soup looks good and bright and cheery, but the description of it sets me off as well. You are such a good sport for trying all these new things and techniques!
ReplyDeleteI made the same mistake! Dealing with a whole fish was no fun at all. I did love the soup, though :) Sorry it wasn't a hit with you.
ReplyDeleteSo weird - I always find Dorie's soups too thin and this one was no exception. Once I had pureéed this and pushed it through the sieve (no food mill here) it was so thin. And yes, it smelled odd ;0 Hey, another one checked off though!
ReplyDeleteOh how disappointing after all of that effort. What a shame. I find filleting fish quite a specialised sort of thing!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the soup, mine at least seemed to hit the right consistency. But the process was admitedly cumbersome.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with your take on the texture. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I did it like Mardi and it was really thin and also smelled really fishy. It was fine, though. I'd prefer just to use fillets and leave it all in chunks, more like cioppino.
ReplyDeleteI also find Dories soups thin. I didn't follow the original directions but they did seem to be lacking in stock. Sorry you learned the pain of the whole fish. I buy fish stock to add flavor.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the "Dorie's soups are too thin" camp with Diane and Mardi. I usually use less stock than she calls for. I found this one OK. It was not as thick as yours, for sure. Sorry this wasn't a favorite.
ReplyDeleteI used snapper filets for mine…there was no way I was going to cook a fish head! Can you tell I fancy myself as a baker, and not a cook!! LOL! However, my fish soup came out quite lovely! It had a good consistency and was delicious! Sorry, that after all that work yours was not so good!
ReplyDeleteWell you are getting a gold star from me for effort - well done ! I didn't even focus on the reason we were to chuck the head in there since I had no chance of procuring a fish head or red snapper for that matter. I can tell you that I also would have been quite displeased if I had to be involved with that amount of prepping for a soup - esp since I am not a fish fan. Unfortunately regardless of the taste, the appearance of this completed pureed one was not a look that is appetizing. To say the least. Hot sauce helped for me but leaving it chunky was best. I will enjoy the rest of the Pernod bottle without fish :)
ReplyDeleteYou validated my worst fears with this recipe. I am glad I did a make and will skip this one altogether. Kudos to you for cutting up a whole fish.
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