23
BRETON FISHERMAN’S SOUP
Ingredients:
• 1.2 kg fish with firm flesh: conger eel, red mul-
let, pollack or mackerel, etc.; and with soft
flesh: whiting, labrus, etc.
• 600 g seasonal shellfish (molluscs)
• 4 to 6 velvet swimming crabs
• 300 g periwinkles
• 1 handful of shrimps
• 2 soupspoons of slightly salted butter
• 2 medium onions
• White part of 1 leek
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 kg potatoes
• 1 bouquet garni (mixed herbs)
• Cooking salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
Gut the fish, cut them into pieces and place them in
two separate muslin cloths.
Peel, wash and shred the vegetables. Finely chop the garlic in
a cutter-mixer, and also the onions. Fry the onions golden
brown in butter in a large saucepan, then add the white part
of the leek a few moments later. Add the garlic, the celery, the
bouquet garni and the fish trimmings.
Add 3 litres of water and boil hard for 30 minutes. Then cut
the peeled potatoes into thick slices and place them in the
soup with cooking salt and crushed pepper.
Check how well they are cooked after 15 minutes and, if they
are nearly done, it is time to add the firm-fleshed fish and, if
you wish, a large shellfish such as a crayfish or a small lobs-
ter. Cover and cook without stirring for 6 minutes.
Then, add the velvet swimming crabs, the periwinkles, the
shrimps, the shellfish (molluscs) and the soft-fleshed fish on top
of everything else. Cover and cook more gently for
3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and leave to rest while warming
a large serving dish and soup bowls, and cutting lemons.
Take out the potatoes, the vegetables, the fish and the shellfish
with a skimming ladle, place them in the serving dish and
keep hot and covered.
Then put the soup through the automatic sieve-juicer and sea-
son with cayenne pepper and, if desired, with finely chopped
herbs.
Serve the dish of fish with a highly seasoned vinaigrette
dressing.
The soup should be kept hot and served afterwards with
croutons.
Eng
