Seafood Soups

Wherever there is access to water, there are fish soups and stews made by simmering fish in flavorful liquid—sometimes seawater—along with indigenous herbs and vegetables that help give the soup its identity. Perhaps no dish, or family of dishes, more clearly reveals the combinations of ingredients that characterize a country’s or a region’s cooking.

Fish soups fall into two categories: those in which the fish is left in pieces and those in which the fish is pureed with the liquid. The easiest method is to toss the fish, whole or cut up, into a pot of simmering liquid and then to serve the whole thing, liquid and fish, in the same bowl. The only drawback to this plan is that eating fish with the bones still attached is messy at best, and for anyone unfamiliar with the anatomy of most fish, destined to end in frustration. One solution is to fillet the fish—or have it filleted—and then to make a flavorful broth with the bones and heads. This way, the heads and bones are strained out, the vegetables and other soup ingredients are added to the broth, and then, shortly before serving, the filleted fish is slipped in to cook.