Sea Bass, Garden Potatoes and Leek Soup
I recently found today’s soup within the blog archives whose notes included the recipe, photos, and exclamations like ‘really delicious’ and ‘everyone really loved this!’
The Sea Bass, Garden Potatoes and Leek Soup is a lovely simple soup, sort of a chowder and sort of a fish stew which easily utilizes the shells from the included shrimp to produce a rich flavored stock as its base.
With leek lending subtle flavor to the mixture the potato cubes cooked in the shrimp stock absorb a rich flavor complementing between ingredients while adding a touch of thickening.
Today’s catch of the day features sea bass but any firm flesh fish such as cod may be substituted making Sea Bass, Garden Potatoes and Leek Soup flexible whichever way you choose to float your net.
Along with the developed complex flavors which are very simply attained between the vegetables, shrimp stock and the assorted fish mix then later combined with the creamy half and half this simple soup, sort of a chowder and sort of a fish stew may well leave you happily smitten hook, line, and sinker.
Sea Bass, Garden Potatoes and Leek Soup
Ingredients
- For the Shrimp Stock:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion, halved
- 1 large carrot, washed cut into thirds
- 1 large stalk celery, cut into thirds
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 6 parsley stems with leaves
- Rinsed shells from the one-pound of peeled shrimp that will be used in the soup
- 1 cup white wine
- 3 cups water, approximately
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 peppercorns
- For Preparing the Soup:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 leeks, light green part, halved, cut into half-inch pieces, carefully washed
- 2 ribs celery, sliced lengthwise then cut into 1/4 inch pieces
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 2 pounds small sized garden potatoes, peeled, cubed
- 2- 2 1/2 cups shrimp stock, approximately, clam juice may alternatively be used
- 2 1/2 cups half and half
- 1 pound sea bass, cut into bite sized pieces (cod may be substituted)
- 1/2-3/4 pound salmon, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 pound large shrimp, peeled, de-veined, cut into bite sized pieces, Shells Reserved for Stock
- few pinches coarse kosher salt plus more according to taste
- few grinds cracked black pepper
- handful of fresh snipped chives for garnish
Instructions
- Preparing the Shrimp Stock: Warm olive oil in a small saucepan. Tumble in the onion, carrots, and celery, cook on low heat around three minutes. Stir in the tomato paste to combine, cook another two minutes. Add in the rinsed shrimp shells and parsley, stir throughout and heat through another few minutes. Increase heat to medium high, pour in the white wine and cook to reduce around three minutes. Pour in enough water to cover the shrimp by a few inches. Sprinkle in the bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce temperature and simmer to half the original amount, strain, set aside for cooking the soup
- Preparing the Soup: Melt butter in a soup pot on very low heat, swirl pan around to cover the bottom
- Stir in the leeks and celery and gently cook until tender, around five minutes
- Add in the garlic and cook for one minute
- Pour in the white wine, increase the heat to medium high and reduce the wine to less than half
- Stir in the potatoes, cook for a minute or two then pour in the shrimp stock
- Simmer until potatoes are just tender, around fifteen minutes
- After potatoes have been cooking for ten minutes simmer the half and half in a small saucepan until just hot
- When potatoes are just cooked through, pour in the hot half and half and stir through
- Continue simmering another few minutes until the stew mixture is evenly hot throughout the soup pot
- Set in the sea bass and the salmon pieces, stir gently and cook for five minutes
- Topple in the shrimp pieces, stir, and simmer the stew another few minutes until the fish is just cooked through and the shrimp are pink
- Sprinkle in a few pinches of salt, stir, check seasoning and adjust to taste
- Stir in the cracked black pepper
- Evenly ladle hot soup with fish and shrimp into bowls, scatter with fresh snipped chives
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