A fish soup can be made with any white fish, but the best we’ve found is the “sheephead” fish. Big (and quite ugly), it truly makes the best stock. A second favorite is the one used in this recipe (since we generally use whatever we can find), the Sea Bream.
Ingredients
1 whole fish
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 celery, roughly chopped
1/4 cup short grain rice
4 cups water
1 tbsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
juice of 1 lemon
Boil the entire fish in water with the salt until tender (approximately 20 minutes). Do not use fish fillets as the head and bones are what give the stock its flavor.
Remove the fish from the water using a skimmer spatula taking care not to break and drop the fish back into the stock. Place the boiled fish into a bowl and set it aside. Drain the fish liquid through a sieve into another container to remove any fish scales. Return the liquid to the cooking pot and add the chopped onion, carrot and celery. Cook for 30 minutes ensuring the vegetables are tender. Add the rice and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until tender.
While the stock with vegetables is simmering, clean the fish and remove any white meat. Separate the eggs and beat the egg white in a metal bowl (this will make it easier to see if it is tempered when adding stock). Add the yolks and lemon and beat well.
For this next part, you may want some help. While continuing to beat the egg, slowly drip in some stock into the egg until it warms up. Do not pour too much stock in at once or stop beating as it may “cook” the egg. Once the egg is completely tempered, add the egg-soup mixture into the remaining soup and roll the pot back and forth to distribute the egg throughout. Add the cleaned fish meat and roll the pot again.
Makes 4-6 hearty servings
Patataki 