Turbot and trout fish head soup

I know I know - you shouldn't make fish stock with oily fish. But that's just in french style cooking. They don't know everything do they?

Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Indonesia - all those places and more they'll cook & eat everything - it's suprising how much we waste! The eyes in particular are a delicacy. Not sure I could eat crab shells though - maybe it's an acquired taste?

So with some trout and turbot heads & tails left after filleting them for a couple of parties (the turbot for a main course dish and the trout to cure for a starter of another party) I made this soup.

Onions
Whole baby shallots
Carrots
Leeks
Celery
Fennel
Baby button mushrooms
Parsley and coriander stalks
Garlic
Ginger
Lemongrass
Chilli (only had green so used those)
Rice wine
Light soy sauce
Lime
Thai fish sauce
Coriander leaf
Seaweed


Made this back in January - so it was a winter warmer with the root veg, ginger & lime. It had been another typical Monday - phone & email going mad with enquiries, so by the time it came round to doing this the daylight had gone - hence odd light.

After doing quite a few thai meals we had all these thai ingredients in the kitchen - and they work really well with the fish heads. Thai fish makes everything taste good - even lamb (that's another story/ blog post).

Sweat off all veg. Add veg stock, ginger garlic, lemon grass, chilli etc & fish heads. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Should never overcook fish stock - taste goes bad. The parsley & coriander stalks give out flavour to the stock, then I removed them for the finished dish. Keep adjusting to taste - you can never have too much thai fish sauce, soy & lime. Think I added some rice wine vinegar too. On top I did a variation on gremolata - instead of the traditional parsley, garlic and lemon zest this was a more thai version - coriander, garlic and lime zest. It gives it a nice fresh taste on top. I also added some deep fried seaweed on top - really going for the healthy soup that day!

Next time might try a coconut milk version......