Balık Çorbası

The heads and bones make the soup and the fillet goes in for the last four minutes.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

the stock

• 1 kg fish heads and bones, gills removed
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 litres water

the soup

• 600 g firm white fish fillet, in large pieces
• 2 potatoes, diced small
• 1 carrot, diced small
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 egg yolks
• juice of 1 lemon
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THE HEADS AND BONES MAKE THE SOUP AND THE FILLET GOES IN FOR THE LAST FOUR MINUTES. All the flavour is extracted from the frames -- a kilogram of heads and bones for twenty-five minutes -- and the fillet is treated as something to be protected rather than cooked. Four minutes in liquid off the boil is enough for a large piece of white fish, and it arrives in flakes that are still distinct. Fish simmered in its own soup for half an hour disintegrates into fibres and the soup tastes muddy rather than sweet.
2. THE GILLS COME OUT AND THE STOCK IS NEVER BOILED HARD. Gills hold blood and grit and turn a stock bitter and cloudy. And twenty-five minutes at a bare simmer, skimmed, is the whole extraction: fish bones give everything they have quickly and then start giving glue and bitterness. This is the opposite of a meat stock and the commonest mistake is treating it like one.
3. THE STOCK IS STRAINED AND THE BONES ARE NOT PRESSED. Poured through a sieve and left alone -- no pushing with a ladle to get the last of it. Pressed, the fine solids go through and the soup can never be clarified.
4. IT IS FINISHED WITH YOLK AND LEMON OFF THE HEAT. Two yolks beaten with lemon juice, a ladle of hot soup whisked in, then back into the pan with the heat off. It gives the soup a pale silkiness that holds the fish rather than letting it sit in a thin broth. Boiled afterwards, the yolks curdle.
5. THE VEGETABLES ARE DICED SMALL AND COOKED IN THE STRAINED STOCK. Five-millimetre dice of potato and carrot, fifteen minutes. Large chunks are still hard when the fish has to go in, and there is no way to extend the cooking afterwards without ruining the fish.
6. The fish heads and bones rinsed and the GILLS CUT OUT.
7. Put in a pan with the onion halves, whole carrot, celery, bay and water.
8. Brought to a bare simmer, SKIMMED, and held there 25 MINUTES. Never boiled hard.
9. STRAINED through a sieve WITHOUT PRESSING the bones.
10. In a clean pan, the olive oil heated and the chopped onion softened 6 MINUTES.
11. The diced potato and carrot added with the strained stock and simmered 15 MINUTES, until tender.
12. Seasoned with salt and white pepper.
13. The heat lowered so the soup is OFF the boil, and the fish fillet lowered in for 4 MINUTES ONLY.
14. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT.
15. The yolks and lemon juice beaten together, a ladle of hot soup whisked in, then stirred back into the pan OFF the heat.
16. The parsley scattered over.
17. TESTED: the fish should be in distinct flakes and the soup pale and slightly silky, not cloudy.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes