Slow-Cooked Salmon with Preserved Lemons and Garlic Confit

Oct 252011

It never crossed my mind to slow-cook fish until I stood contemplating a fillet of salmon. I needed to be doing other things and wanted to put it on the fire and walk away from for a while. Then my eye fell on my tagra, a clay vessel typical of Moroccan Berber cooking

I love cooking in clay pots. My beans are never so tasty as when they’re simmered for hours in a clay pot I keep only for them. My mother, brought up in Nicaragua, says that when she was young, there were no other kinds of pots but clay. People went to the open-air market, where a vendor displayed a variety of clay pots on a blanket placed on the ground, and bought as needed. Maybe my love of clay cooking vessels is a throwback to the taste of Nicaraguan cooking of almost 100 years ago.

Tajine of Red Mullet in Chermoulah

Everyday Cooking, fish, Useful Flavorings and Relishes 7 Responses »

Aug 042011

Anyone tired of cheese yet? The Nine Days before the fast of Tisha B’Av are still in force. No meat or poultry, no wine. True, Shabbat approaches and then we can indulge in both, but come Sunday, observant Jews are still going to need meatless recipes.

The solution is fish. Like the Moroccan Shabbat Fish or the Salmon in Orange Glaze, this tajine is colorful and full of flavor. It satisfies the kind of hunger that demands that food be substantial but light – summer hunger.

Small red mullet fillets make an attractive presentation, but you can use slices of any firm white fish. Lacking the clay tajine pot, you can use a heavy-bottomed saucepan. An equally good method is to bake the dish in a casserole. It’s best served right away, but can be made in the morning, refrigerated in its original casserole or saucepan, and gently re- heated to serve for lunch or dinner.

Two typical Middle Eastern ingredients feature in this recipe: spicy chermoulah marinade and roasted bell peppers, both made in minutes. (recipes below).

Tajine of Mullet Fillets In Chermoulah Marinade

Serves 6

Printable version here.

Ingredients:

chermoulah marinade according to recipe below
2 lbs- 1 kg. red mullet fillets, cut into large chunks
12 small new potatoes or 6 medium-sized potatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced
12 cherry tomatoes
2 bell peppers of different colors, grilled and sliced into sixths
Salt and pepper to taste
12 green or black olives
1 lemon, cut into quarters

Chermoulah marinade:
Blend the following ingredients on low speed till a thin, grainy sauce is formed:
2 peeled, chopped garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ – or 1 fresh red chili
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

Reserve ¼ cup of the chermoulah. Place the fish in a deep dish and cover it on all sides with the rest of the chermoulah. Cover and put in the refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours.

Wash, but don’t peel, the potatoes. Cook them for 5 minutes in salted, boiling water. Drain, place in cold water, then peel them. Cut into halves if using new potatoes, or quarters if using medium-sized ones.

Gently sauté the garlic in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. This only takes a minute or two over low heat. Raise the heat to medium and add the tomatoes, grilled peppers, and reserved chermoulah. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grilled bell peppers:
Grill whole bell peppers under your oven broiler, or place them on a metal grill over an open flame. Turn them from side to side as their thin skins char and their flesh softens. They should not become completely blackened but will retain their plumpness and color.

Allow the grilled peppers to cool down enough to be handled, then pop them into a plastic bag to cool down. Their skins will then slip off easily. You will need to wet your hands occasionally while peeling.

Slit them open and remove the seeds. Cut them into 4-6 long strips.

(If you like fiery food, try grilling some green or red chilis this way. Be very careful with chilis however – wear latex gloves while peeling if possible, and don’t touch your eyes or any part of your face if your fingers have come into contact with them.)

Place the potatoes on the bottom of a large casserole (or tajine if you have one).

Spread half the tomato/pepper mixture over them. Put the marinated fish on top, and cover it with the remaining half of tomato/pepper mixture.
Scatter the olives around the fish and vegetables.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of olive oil over all.

If baking, cover the casserole and cook for 30 minutes at 350° F – (180° C) or until fish is cooked through.

If cooking in a tajine, put the lid on and cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes. If using a saucepan, add ¼ cup water and cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes.

Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over the hot dish.

An Indian Menu

fish, Useful Flavorings and Relishes, Vegetarian 7 Responses »

May 262011

Every so often, I feel that I have to eat curry. It must have something to do with needing micro-nutrients. I mean, curry spices are packed with them.That’s why curries figure so prominently in vegetarian cuisine.

That’s my theory, anyway.

Most often, dal fixes me up, that thick lentil stew made aromatic with turmeric and cinnamon and cloves, and smoothed into submission with ghee (my post about ghee is here). Dal is high in protein, satisfying, and inexpensive. You can make it mild or add heat with chilis. Myself, I like some heat, but the recipe below is flexible; you choose how much, if any, chili or cayenne goes in.

Dal and plain rice, like the one I cook to serve with majadra, and salad on the side, make a good, home-made lunch that only takes about half an hour. But then again, and especially if there are guests, I might make a whole Indian menu for dinner. Herbed fish patties, coconut rice, dal, and yogurt raita. (Raita is sauce eaten as a relish and a cool foil to spicy or chili-hot food). Just exotic enough to pique the appetite but not so much so as to freak the people out.

I prefer dal made with the tiny, pale-yellow moong lentils that only Indian stores seem to carry.These seem to melt away into a thick, smooth, savory mass that absorbs all the spices perfectly. But yellow split peas work very well too. Just cook them till they’re very, very soft.

The recipes have been given in logical sequence to make best use of your time. Altogether, the whole meal should take 1 hour to prepare.

Cucumber Raita (Yogurt Sauce)

Serves 6 – may be halved or doubled

2 large, fresh cucumbers

1 medium onion

2 teaspoons salt

Optional: 1/8 – ¼ teaspoon cayenne flakes

3 cups thick, cold yogurt

1. Peel the cucumbers. Grate them, and grate the onion – or process the vegetables in the food processor.

2. Stir salt into the grated vegetables and put them in a sieve or colander placed over a bowl to catch the juices. Allow to marinate and drain for 1-2 hours.

While the vegetables are draining, prepare the dal.

3. After vegetables have drained 1-2 hours, rinse them and mix with yogurt and optional cayenne. The sauce is ready to serve.

Dal: Split-Pea Stew

Serves 6

1 – ½ cups moong dal or yellow split peas

4 cups water

1 – ½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons ghee or butter

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cayenne flakes, or more if liked

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon mustard seeds – do not substitute prepared mustard for these seeds.

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Put water to boil with salt. Boil the lentils in it for 20 minutes or until very soft. Stir occasionally while cooking.

While dal is cooking, start preparing the fish patties.

2. Melt the ghee or butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add all the spices. Heat them through for 2 or 3 minutes.

3. Add the spiced butter to the boiled lentils and stir thoroughly. Simmer over low heat till the stew is thick – about 5 minutes.

Indian Herbed Fish Patties

Adapted from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden

Serves 4

1 cup cilantro leaves

¾ cup scallions

1 teaspoon hot curry powder or regular curry powder plus 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes (to taste)

3 tablespoons flour

1 lb. – 500 grams raw ground fish

½ teaspoon salt

Oil

1. Chop the cilantro and scallions finely. You may pulse them in a food processor, but don’t process them to a paste. Those bits of green herbs give the patties a certain home-made attraction.

2. Add the curry powder, flour, and fish. Mix very well.

3. Make patties in the palm of your hand, pushing the edges together so they don’t crack in frying. Press a shallow dimple in the center of each patty with your forefinger: this helps the patty stay together (do this with hamburgers too). Fry the patties in shallow oil till brown on both sides.

Coconut Rice

Serves 6

1 can coconut milk

2 cups water

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 ½ cups rice

3 coriander pods, crushed, husks removed, and black seeds crushed again.

1. Boil coconut milk, water, salt, turmeric and coriander in a medium pan, covered.

2. Add the rinsed, drained rice. Bring to a boil again.

3. Cook, covered, over low heat until all the liquid is absorbed – about 15 minutes.

Serve this meal with cold cider, beer, or lemonade.

Fish Fillets Baked with Tomatoes and Herbs

Everyday Cooking, fish No Responses »

Oct 082010

Scallions, tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro, with a good drizzle of olive oil. It’s simple, and a truly Latin American taste. To me, it brings back the delicious home cooking of the maids that worked for my friend’s mothers, when I was a teenager living in Rio de Janeiro. Some of those ladies had been with their employers for many years and spoke Yiddish. It was really a spicy patois of Portuguese and Yiddish, which they spoke with the resident grandmothers or the little ones.

Those talented cooks made nothing of whipping up Ashkenazi dishes like kugel and matzah balls. But when they put their hands to their home dishes, spicy and hot with Afro-Brazilian flavors, you tasted an entirely different and savory world. I miss that food, and sometimes miss dendé oil – that pungent, reddish-orange, viscous oil that flavors so much Brazilian cooking.

But olive oil is good too. I most often cook fish with some variation of onions, tomatoes, and cilantro, splashed with olive oil. It takes 10 minutes to prepare and while it’s baking, I can cook a vegetable and maybe some rice. Voila, dinner.

This dish is best served with some Bossa Nova in the background.

Fish Fillets Baked with Tomatoes and Herbs

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1-2 fillets per person, depending on thickness

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

1 bunch of scallions, chopped into finger-sized lengths

2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 handful cilantro, chopped

Salt, pepper, and paprika

Olive oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F° – 180° C.

1. Pour the lime or lemon juice over the fillets. Turn them over to make sure that all parts of the fish have been bathed in the juice.

2. On a baking pan, make a bed of the chopped scallions, half the chopped tomatoes, and most of the chopped cilantro.

3. Place the fish on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika over the fillets.

4. Spoon the rest of the tomatoes and some cilantro over the fish. Salt the vegetables lightly.

5. Drizzle olive oil over all.

6. Bake till the fish is entirely white and flakes easily when probed with a fork. This takes from 15-35 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets.

6 Ways to Use Up Leftover Wine

Everyday Cooking, fish, Fleish: Meat and Poultry, Useful Flavorings and Relishes, Useful Information, Wine and Vinegar 4 Responses »

Sep 202010

use up your leftover wine

The wine was good, but dinner’s over and there’s just a little left in the bottle. What can you do with it?

Keep it. Even a little wine does magic things to your cooking.

1. Make your own wine vinegar. It’s easy. You’ll need a clean glass jar and a bottle of commercial vinegar with the “mother of vinegar” – wisps of original vinegar-making material in it. Organic vinegars work best.

Pour the bottle of vinegar into your jar. Add any leftover wine to it. You can mix wines if you want, but the vinegar does taste better if you keep separate jars for white and red.
Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a paper towel. Secure it with a rubber band.
Store at room temperature, away from any open bottles of wine. You don’t want vinegar bacteria getting into your drink.
Stir once daily and start tasting after a week. Some vinegar will evaporate, so keep adding leftover wine.
Don’t be startled if a new “mother” starts forming at the bottom of the jar. This is a sign of good health. Once it’s firm, you can pick it out of the jar with tongs and give it away, compost it, or use it to start a fresh supply of vinegar.
Start using the vinegar when it’s gotten sour enough to suit you.

2. Blend up a wine vinaigrette. Leftover white wine makes an elegant, fresh-tasting salad dressing or sauce for fish, chicken, or vegetables. You’ll need:

1/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons)
1 teaspoon honey – if the wine is dry. If using a sweet wine, omit the honey.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil

Blend the wine, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Still blending (either with a fork, whisk, or the blender), add the oil, slowly.
Mix again just before serving.

That’s it. The vinaigrette will keep up to a week refrigerated.

3. Poach pears in wine. This dessert makes a welcome light ending to a rich meal. Use red or rosé wine. Follow this link for the recipe.

4. Marinate beef, chicken, fish, or tofu in wine. Use your judgment; red wine for red meat, white or rosé for chicken, white for fish or tofu. Keep in mind how the color of the wine will affect the look of the finished dish: will you mind if your chicken looks purple?

A simple marinade:

1 cup leftover wine, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 thinly-sliced onion, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ½ teaspoon ground or freshly-grated ginger, a strip of orange peel as long as your forefinger, 1 bay leaf.

Lay the raw meat (or fish, or tofu) in the marinade. Refrigerate immediately till you’re ready to cook the dish. Note: Meat, chicken, and tofu may be marinated ½-hour to overnight in the fridge. Fish will “cook” and fall apart if left longer than ½-hour in the marinade.
Turn the ingredients over half-way into the marinating time so that they will absorb the flavors evenly.
Remove the marinaded ingredient from the liquid. Now grill, sauté, or roast your dish.
Don’t throw the marinade liquid out either. You can cook it down in a saucepan till it’s thick and spoon it over the finished dish for yet more flavor.

5. Use leftover wine as part of the liquid in tomato sauce or gravy. The perceptible “winey” flavor will cook out, but the sauce will take on a richness and depth that wasn’t there before. On the other hand, if you stir the wine in just a few minutes before you intend to serve, the the sauce will have a delicious winey top note to harmonize with the deeper, rich notes of cooked vegetables.

6. Freeze your leftover wine.Use sealable bags to store your leftover wine, even quarter-cupfuls, in the freezer. You can then break off however much you think you’ll need, as you need it.

Use up or freeze your leftover wine within a day if it’s been left out, or a week if it’s been re-corked and kept in the fridge. Wine that’s old and tastes unpleasant is only fit to be poured down the drain.

I love the taste of roast-lamb gravy enriched with a last-minute dollop of red wine. My grandmother, who studied the art of sauces at the Cordon Bleu (back in the 1950s), used to make roast lamb with wine gravy – and when I cook it like she did, vivid memories of summertime dinners at Grandma and Grandpa’s house come back to me.

Grilled Sea Bass in Spicy Lemon Marinade

fish 14 Responses »

May 122010

: Photo by Yaelian

When Baroness Tapuzina and I cooked dinner for a group of Israeli food bloggers last week, we didn’t know what we were getting into. It would be a nice change from meeting at a restaurant, we felt. A home-cooked treat. So we planned an elegant, not-difficult menu, and confidently met in my kitchen about 5 hours before the bloggers were expected to arrive.

Come hungry, we’d told them.

We tied our aprons around our waists and began. Chop and stir, measure and grate. Solemn discussions in my narrow little kitchen as we consulted recipes, bumped into each other, searched for ingredients hiding in weird corners, snatched reductions off the fire before they simmered away to nothing. Anyone snooping in the work area could have heard things like,

“Dammit, where’d I put the walnuts?”

Or,

“Oh God, the fish is still frozen!”

Or,

“I need to sit down.”

Actually, we worked well together. Although time sped towards dinner, we had everything in hand and kept our sense of humor over the inevitable last-minute mess-ups. It was good to depend on a good friend. We had a helper in the Little One, who washed dishes and set the table. Later, she helped waitress, too. We’re firm believers in child labor here.

Our reward for the planning, shopping, and kitchen work was that the bloggers just about licked their fingers. And we were extremely lucky in having Irene Sharon Hodes, who is a professional wine steward, look the menu over in advance and match the each course with an appropriate wine. She lead discussions throughout the meal, comparing each wine to the previous tastings and explaining why it paired with the current course.

The main dish was grilled, marinated fillet of sea bass. There were some changes to the original recipe. It calls for limes and lime juice – not available here, so we used lemon. We substituted a little cayenne for the original 2 tsp. jalapeños, as not everyone tolerates lots of chili. And since we needed twelve portions, we tripled the recipe. It all worked out deliciously.

Irene’s choice of wine for this fish was an oaky, Israeli, Galil Pinot Noir.

Grilled Fish in a Spicy Lemon Marinade

Serves 4

4 firm, mild white fish fillets such as grouper, sea bass, flounder, cod or halibut, each about 6 oz.

Sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 walnut-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1 small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 Tbs. chopped garlic

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper flakes

2 tsp. grated lemon or lime zest

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1 lemon or lime, quartered (optional)

1. Place the fish fillets in a nonaluminum container and season lightly with salt.

2. In a food processor, combine the onion, ginger, cilantro, garlic, chili, lime zest, pepper, lemon or lime juice and olive oil. Using on-off pulses, pulse until a paste forms.

3. Rub the paste evenly over both sides of each fish fillet. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or for up to 4 hours. (We marinated 2 hours and it was great.)

Cooking Method: We lined a shallow baking pan with baking paper and placed the fish, with its marinade, in it. Popped the whole thing in the fridge for 2 hours. About 15 minutes before we needed to serve, we heated the oven grill and grilled the fish in there, without turning it over, for 10 minutes. Grilled this way, a certain amount of sauce formed in the baking pan, which we spooned over the fish as we served it. Very delicious! Make sure to have plenty of fresh bread on hand to mop it up.

The original instructions are as follows: Prepare a fire in a charcoal grill or preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Season the fish fillets with salt again. Lightly oil the grill or grill pan. Grill the fish, turning once, until opaque throughout when pierced with a knife, 3 to 4 minutes per side.

Transfer to warmed individual plates. Serve immediately with lemon or lime wedges, if desired.

*

I wasn’t able to take photos, but Yaelian kindly allows me to use hers. For the complete menu, click the Baroness here.

Fish Baked in Coconut Milk

Everyday Cooking, fish 5 Responses »

Feb 172009

This recipe is loosely based on memories of fish dishes I cooked when I lived in Brazil. I serve it with rice perfumed with saffron or turmeric, and a green vegetable. I think any firm white fish will do, although salmon makes a richer, more festive dish. I happened to have some Nile Perch in the freezer that was just asking to be cooked (Nile Perch and salmon being the only frozen fish worth buying here), so I cooked it.

First, you make the sauce. When the sauce is cooked, put the fish in a baking pan, cover it with sauce, and bake.The whole thing takes about 20 minutes of preparation. While it’s baking, fix the rice and vegetable. At the end of another half hour, the meal is cooked.

Follow me, gentle reader.

Mimi’s Fish in Coconut Milk

4 generous servings

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 Tblsp. olive oil

1 medium onion

1/2 red bell pepper

3 large cloves of garlic

1 tomato

2 Tblsp. of sliced green olives

1 can of coconut milk

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. salt

Pepper to taste, freshly-ground if possible.

Method: first preheat the oven to 180 C – 325 F

1. Slice the onion and the bell pepper; chop the tomato. Don’t cut the vegetables into uniform sizes; the finished plate looks more interesting if there is a variety. Chop the garlic.

2. In a deep skillet or a pan, warm the olive oil. Add all the vegetables and the sliced olives. Don’t allow the garlic to brown. You see in the photo that I put the garlic on top of the other vegetables so that it just heats through while they start to cook. After a few minutes, stir it in and cook everything together till the vegetables have softened.

3. Add the coconut milk. When you pour it out, thicker liquid will be on top. Pour till you see watery thin liquid, then stop pouring. Discard the watery stuff or save it for another use (it’s good as part of a smoothie)..

4. Add the lemon juice.

5. Add the salt and pepper. Cook the sauce over a high flame for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while. You want the sauce to reduce and become quite thick. The fish, baking, will contribute its own juices and the sauce will thin out again somewhat in the oven.

Taste the sauce for salt and pepper; add a little more if you like. While it’s cooking, prepare the fish.

Ingredients for the fish

Thick fish fillets: 1.250 1.500 kg. – 2.75 – 3 lb.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3 healthy spring onions

…if you have it, two stalks of lemongrass. If you don’t, it’ll still taste delicious.

Method:

If your fish is frozen, rinse it and allow it to soak in water with the lemon juice for 10 minutes. Fresh fish doesn’t need this treatment, nor does fine frozen salmon. The photo of the raw fish was taken when the fillets were sitting in lemon water.

Put it down in a baking pan and cover it with the prepared sauce.

Scissor the spring onions over the surface of the fish. If you have lemongrass, tuck long pieces of the stalk in here and there.

Cover the pan with tin foil, leaving one side open to allow some steam out while the fish is cooking. Bake everything for 30-40 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. The pieces in the photo needed 40 minutes.

Not necessary, but nice: dry-toast 3 Tblsp. of sesame seeds over a high flame till a nutty aroma rises from the pan. Sprinkle the fish generously with the toasted seeds.

Serve with rice that has been flavored with garlic and saffron or turmeric.

*

Saffron Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup of white rice, rinsed and drained

Olive oil to thinly cover the bottom of the cooking pan

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 large or 2 medium bay leaves

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. saffron threads or about 3/4 tsp. powdered turmeric

2 cups plus 1 tsp. hot water

Method:

1. Boil the water in a small pot (the extra tsp. is to allow for evaporation in the next step).

2. If using saffron, put it into the water and allow it to simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Cover the pot and allow the saffron to release its color and flavor into the water while you’re going on with the next steps.

3. Heat the olive oil in the rice pot. Add the bay leaves. If using turmeric, add it now.

4. Stir the garlic in, and add the rice. Allow the rice to heat through and change color slightly, but keep a sharp eye on the garlic so it won’t burn.

5. Add the salt.

6. Pour the hot water over the rice, which will turn yellow immediately. Stir a couple of times.

7. Cover the rice and lower the flame. Steam it for 15 minutes. Let it mellow another 5 or so before serving. For the finished product, see the first photo.

Fish Soup for Winter Dinners

Everyday Cooking, fish, Soup 15 Responses »

Feb 052009

Fish grilled, fish baked, fish fried… my husband is complaining already. So I said I’d bring meat back to the table. Then I saw frozen pink tuna on sale at the supermarket. The only frozen fish worth buying here are salmon and Nile perch, but I looked at the package and imagined rich, aromatic fish soup with red peppers and cilantro and chunks of vegetables – and a little spill of olive oil in each bowl…oh dear.

Well, I guess I can fry him a couple of hamburgers.

Mimi’s Fish Soup

serves 4

Ingredients:

2 Tblsp. olive oil, and more at serving time

About 1 kg. deboned fish. Use any combination of large, firm pieces and smaller, more delicate fish. For this soup I used 600 grams of pink tuna and 500 grams frozen red mullet fillets.

1 medium onion

3 large cloves garlic

1 large tomato (I had a handful of cherry tomatoes and no other plans for them, so I halved them and chucked them in.)

2 stalks celery

1 large carrot

1 young leek

optional: one other vegetable. Squash, fresh mushrooms, or green beans are good: about 1 cup of any.

1/2 red bell pepper

1 pinch saffron

1 pinch dried or 1 sprig fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper, or 4 turns of the pepper grinder

1 large handful chopped parsley or cilantro

Hint: kids like this soup blended, with some whole corn kernels in it.

Method:

1. Peel and chop all the vegetables into chunks. Reserve the bell pepper chunks.

2. Sauté the vegetables, except for the bell pepper, in the olive oil. While you’re stirring, add the thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

3. Cover the pan and let the vegetables steam for 10 minutes.

4. Add water to cover, and bring to a low boil.

5. Add the saffron. Simmer the vegetable stock for another 15 minutes.

6. Add the fish. If using two or more kinds of fish, add the firmer pieces now. Maintain a low boil and cook the soup 15 minutes longer.

7. Add any smaller or more delicate pieces of fish. Add the chopped red pepper. The reason for adding it at this point is that it will maintain its bright color and make the soup attractive. Lower the flame and cook the soup a further 10 minutes.

8. Add the chopped parsley or cilantro, stir well, and turn the flame off.

Add a little splash of olive oil to each bowl. Serve with plenty of hot garlic bread.