General recommendations
If you try to cook the whole fish head, the fish soup will taste bitter. This can be avoided by cutting off the gills and removing the cartilage at the base of the fish's skull.
To prevent the broth from the fish head from becoming cloudy, you need to remove both the gills and the eyes. But when cooking, dirt can still get into the soup. In this case, you can pour an egg white into your ear, which will collect all the dirt. After cooking, it will need to be caught and thrown away.
Fish heads are not the only thing that can be put into the stew. Ridges, fins, tails, trimmings are suitable. The richest soup will be obtained by cooking over low heat.
Sometimes fish heads give off a specific smell of mud. It can be neutralized by keeping them in lemon juice. This is especially true for river breeds. Soak your head in water for 30–40 minutes. Then, when cooking the fish soup, less foam will be released.
A beautiful golden color of the soup can be obtained by boiling the onion in the husk. A piece of butter will give the stew an exquisite taste, and dill and parsley will add aroma.
Fish head soup - general principles
Despite the fact that the dish is simple to prepare, does not require the purchase of expensive products, is cooked from what is currently in the kitchen, neither the preparation process nor the cooking process takes much time, for success it is important to follow the general principles of cooking:
1. Fish heads need to be washed thoroughly, then remove the gills and eyes. Otherwise, the soup will have an unpleasant bitter taste.
2. The heads need to be placed in a pan of cold water so that the liquid completely covers them. Simmer until the meat is cooked, skimming off the foam from time to time.
3. Here, for taste, you can add roots, an onion, peeled but not chopped carrots, as well as spices and laurel leaves to the broth. For color, add a small amount of onion peel
4. Remove the heads and cut them. Discard used vegetables and roots. Strain the broth.
5. If the dish includes cereal, rinse it, add it to the broth, and boil it.
6. Add chopped carrots, onions, potatoes. You can pre-passer.
7. After all the ingredients are ready, return the fish head fillet to the broth, add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a few minutes.
8. When serving, sprinkle with fresh herbs.
As you can see, there are no difficulties; one recipe is distinguished from another only by the presence of certain ingredients, the order in which the ingredients are added and the serving.
From red fish
Red fish gives a refined taste and aroma. But if a steak is quite expensive, then the heads can be used to prepare an economical dish. The main thing is to do everything right.
Ingredients:
- head of salmon, salmon, pink salmon or other fish - 1 pc.;
- potatoes – 3 pcs.;
- carrots and onions – 2 pcs.;
- water – 2 l;
- bay leaf, ground black pepper, salt, Provencal herbs - to taste.
Preparation:
- Clean the head from the gills, remove the eyes, and fill it with cold water for half an hour.
- Boil water, add fish, cook at moderate boil, skim off foam.
- Place the onion and carrots in the water and cook over medium heat for 20–30 minutes until the broth is transparent.
- Peel and chop the remaining carrots and onions. Cut the potatoes into cubes. Chop the greens.
- Remove the head and vegetables from the finished soup and strain it. Select the edible parts from the head of the fish, return them to the fish soup, and discard the vegetables.
- Add chopped potatoes to the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Then add carrots and cook for 3 minutes. Lastly, add the onion, salt, spices, and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are soft.
- 2 minutes before turning off, add fresh herbs, salt and pepper if necessary. Turn off the heat and leave the soup to steep for 15 minutes. Then serve.
How to cook fish soup
An important rule for preparing this first dish is to cook it over low heat. Then the broth will be clear and rich.
But if the ear has lost its transparency, then to lighten it, apply an egg white pull. An unpeeled onion will give the broth a beautiful color, a piece of butter will give it a taste, and fresh herbs will give it an aroma.
Other ingredients for fish soup are usually potatoes and onions. However, there are recipes with the addition of cereals, carrots and other vegetables. How long to cook the broth depends on the type of fish used. The river one will be ready in 15-20 minutes, the sea one in 10.
Ingredients:
- Head, fins and tail from one fish (this recipe uses silver carp)
- Bay leaf with peppercorns – 3 pcs.
- Potatoes – 3 pcs.
- Onions – 1 pc.
- Salt and black pepper - to taste
- Seasoning for fish soup – 1 tsp.
- Carrots – 1 pc. (optional)
From large fish
A complete soup is obtained from one head of large fish. For the next recipe, large pike perch, carp, mullet, and pelengas are suitable.
Ingredients:
- fish head – 1 pc.;
- potatoes – 4 pcs.;
- carrots, onions - 1 pc.;
- buckwheat – 1 cup;
- bay leaf, dill, salt - to taste.
Preparation:
- Remove the gills and eyes from the fish, pour in 3 liters of water.
- Peel the carrots and onions, place them whole in the pan with the fish, add a bay leaf.
- Put on fire, cook for 1 hour over low heat under the lid.
- Remove the head and separate the edible parts. Remove carrots, onions, bay leaves and discard.
- Cut the potatoes into slices, add to the pan, and cook for 25 minutes. Then remove and grind into puree.
- Pour buckwheat into the ear and cook for 15 minutes. Return the edible parts of the fish, mash the potatoes, and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat, add chopped dill, leave to steep for 10 minutes, covered.
The head of pike perch, carp, mullet, and pelengas is perfect for fish soup.
Homemade head and tail fish soup recipe
This made a great first course for lunch. The head was cooked well, I really like it.
Ingredients for fish head and salmon tail soup
- Head and tail of chum salmon
- small carrot
- 2-5 potatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 tablespoons semolina
- 2-3 bay leaves
- Seasoning "12 vegetables and herbs"
- Pepper
- Greenery
- Vegetable oil for frying
How to cook delicious chum salmon fish soup
We prepare the necessary products. We wash the fish head and tail, cut the head into two halves. We clean and wash potatoes, carrots, and onions.
Pour water into the pan, put the fish and put it on the stove over high heat. We put the head and tail in immediately, since it is not just caught, but frozen. Therefore, let it cook a little longer so that the meat becomes softer and more tender.
While the water is boiling, cut the potatoes into small cubes. You can cut it the way you usually cut it for soup.
Cut the onion into small cubes, you can cut it into thin quarter rings.
We cut the carrots, as we will fry them; our family likes them more when they are grated on a coarse grater. We rarely use cutting into circles or cubes for frying.
As it boils, be sure to skim off the foam, but a lot of it appears. The water has boiled, reduce the heat and add the potatoes. After 3-4 minutes, add two tablespoons of semolina. You can add rice, but then the soup will take longer to cook. For me, semolina is better, as in the ear.
The soup is slowly boiling, let's start frying. Pour a little vegetable oil into the frying pan, add onions and carrots.
Fry the vegetables until lightly golden; no need to fry too much.
Place vegetables in a saucepan and stir. Add a tablespoon of seasoning. We use this seasoning all the time. It contains various dried herbs, vegetables and salt. Add it to taste for saltiness. We try the potatoes; they should be cooked already.
Throw in the bay leaf. You can add chopped dill or parsley. We already put the greens on the plate. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Fish soup is ready. Remove from heat, cover with a lid and be sure to let it brew for 15-20 minutes.
From small river fish
The good thing about this river fish soup recipe is that it is easy to implement on the go. If you cook over a fire, you can give the soup a specific smoky flavor. The recipe is based on a 10-liter pot.
Ingredients:
- fish heads – 2 kg;
- potatoes – 8 pcs.;
- carrots, onions – 2 pcs.;
- millet cereal – 100 g;
- salt, herbs, spices - to taste.
Preparation:
- Remove the gills, plaque, and eyes from the heads. If you don't like the smell of river mud, sprinkle the fish with lemon juice. Place the food in a pot and add water so that the liquid only slightly covers the fish.
- Bring to a boil, add 3–4 liters of clean water, cook for 30 minutes.
- Place the onion in the pot and add the pepper.
- Peel and chop the potatoes, onions, and rinse the millet. When the broth boils, add vegetables and cereals to it.
- Cook until all ingredients are ready. Stir the soup with a stick from the fire pit to impart a smoky flavor.
How to cook carp head
This ear will turn out to be really the simplest and most banal. So if you are not a fan of new products and experiments, save this option!
INGREDIENTS | QUANTITY |
carrot | 2 pcs. |
carp heads | 2 kg |
potato | 5 pieces. |
greenery | 20 g |
onion | 2 heads |
spices | taste |
Cooking time: 80 minutes | Calorie content per 100 grams: 82 kcal |
How to cook:
- Clean and rinse the fish as thoroughly as possible.
- Place in a saucepan with water and place on the stove.
- Cook until fully cooked.
- Cut the skin off the potatoes, wash them and cut them into cubes.
- Remove the skin from the onion, rinse it and finely chop it.
- Peel the carrots, cut the root vegetables into rings.
- Wash the greens and chop them finely.
- When everything is ready (carp included), take out the fish and let it cool.
- Add potatoes, onions and carrots to the broth.
- At this time, disassemble the carp into edible and inedible parts.
- Add the first ones to the soup along with the herbs when the root vegetables are ready.
- Season the fish soup with spices, stir and serve after ten minutes.
Tip: you can add some tomatoes to the soup, it would be new and tasty!
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Secrets of making fish soup from a pike head
There are many secrets in preparing different dishes. This also affected pike fish soup.
Namely:
- To achieve transparency of the broth and get a rich fish soup, it is recommended to take live or completely fresh fish. Frozen pike ukha will not be as tasty and aromatic. And the profit won’t be the same;
- During the cooking process, the broth will have to be strained. You should take gauze. It may not be possible to strain thoroughly through a strainer;
- to obtain a more noticeable sensation of fishy taste, it is better to simmer the broth in a cast iron cauldron;
- some advise adding a little vodka (50 - 100 ml) and a pinch of sugar just before turning off;
- the ear of their pike heads is served with white soft bread and fresh herbs, which should be finely chopped;
- It is better not to choose fish that are too large. A few small ones will do instead. The ideal option is to throw in some small change along with the pike heads for fat.