Fish soup base soup

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 kg fish trimmings, bone strands, heads, fins
• 200 g celeriac, or one stick of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 m.-sized onion(s)
• 2 tomatoes, fully ripe
• 2 cloves garlic
• some thyme stalks
• some celery leaves
• 1 small chili pepper(s), dried red (pitted)
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• some fennel seeds
• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil, for frying
• 1 tsp salt
• some pepper, freshly ground, black

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours 20 minutes

Fine fish soup as a basic soup/basic fish broth for refinement as desired. Absolutely suitable for beginners.

Roughly dice the vegetables, halve the onion with the skin on, press the garlic with the skin on, lightly crush the fennel seeds and mustard seeds in a mortar. Deseed a small dried red chili. Wash the tomatoes and remove the stalks. Heat the oil in a large pot, briefly fry the onion halves, add the fish pieces and vegetables and fry, add the spices and top up with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for at least 1-2 hours. Pour the fish stock through a fine sieve into a pot and clarify with an egg white. This fish soup makes a fine base and can be modified as desired. Add finely chopped vegetable strips and small cubes of fish fillet, a little cream, diced potatoes, or smoked paprika. There are no limits to your personal preferences. The fish base is best cooked when a whole fish is filleted.