Fish soup

A week or so, another soup, this time a fish version of the pork soup noticed at reference 1. Occasioned, I think, by my noticing some smoked haddock in the cooler when I was buying some pork, about to be noticed.

So, starting about 90 minutes to the off, start with three pints of water and three ounces of pearl barley. Bring to the boil and simmer for a bit. Add some coarsely chopped celery and onion. About 45 before the off, add some potatoes, in chunks of around a cubic inch.

While this is going on, cut a naturally smoked fillet of haddock in half to avoid turning out the fish kettle. Unweighed, but guessing, around 12 ounces. Simmer in water, then skin and flake. On this occasion I simmered it for around 10 minutes, which turned out to be around 5 minutes too long. Should have been just enough that the skin came off cleanly and the flesh flaked. As it was, too much of the flavour went down the plug hole along with the water in which it had been cooked. Or to be more precise, onto the strip of gravel outside the back door.

Cut some white cabbage into thin strips. Add it and the flaked fish about 5 minutes before the off.

Add a large left-over mushroom, cut into six sectors, about 2 minutes before the off.

As it turned out, perfectly eatable but a little watery for both our tastes. Out of the four pints or so of soup, we did three at the first sitting, with the last pint serving as a supplement to something else a few days later. Take-away: don't pre-cook the fish for so long and think about fortification with a little ham or bacon.

PS: the snap of a Finnan Haddock above was turned up by Bing, this being a special sort of smoked haddock, which I would never make into soup. A little lurid here, but indubitably the right thing. When we were first married, BH used to buy them for not very much at all from the market at Queen's Crescent in Kentish Town, near where she taught at the time. Now quite hard to get unless you want to get luxury ones by the half dozen by mail order. Although I do come across their near relative, the Arbroath Smokie from time to time. Cured enough that it can be eaten cold, without further cooking. No doubt full of nicotine, tar and all manner of evil things. 

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/11/pork-soup-with-all-trimmings.html. For the pork soup.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=arbroath. The fishmonger in Bridge Road, across from Hampton Court Palace seems to have been the smokie place. Sadly, no longer with us.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-blob-is-back.html. For the gravel.