Thursday afternoon I was in Chapel Market. The fishmonger had some nice looking sea bass, 2 for £5.00. I had found a smoker bag that I forgot I had bought in one of the kitchen drawers and thought smoked sea bass sounded quite nice, so I bought a brace.
Well, I got home with the fish and scaled and filleted them, then popped the fillets into a dish and placed the dish into the smoker bag, according to the instructions. The whole thing then goes into the oven, where the heat of the oven is supposed to burn the Finnish wood chips inside the bag and smoke the contents without filling the kitchen with smoke.
Well, the bass certainly was cooked at the end. It had virtually no smoky taste, however. In future, I will stick to tea smoking - cheaper and more efficient!
Here is the smoker bag I bought:
It is made by a Finnish company called Savu. I do not recommend it!
Anyway, I had the heads and carcasses of the two sea bass, so I had fish fumet and turned the fumet into a simple fish soup.
Fish Soup
heads and carcasses of two fish
1/2 leek, sliced (about 100g - use the green part and save the white part of the soup)
1 carrot, chopped (about 70g)
1 rib celery, chopped
1 handful parsley
1 few peppercorns
juice 1/2 lemon or 1 tablespoon vinegar
enough water to cover
Simmer everything together for about 45 minutes. Strain off the liquid and put it back on the heat; reduce to about 750ml.
While the fumet is reducing, pick over the fish carcass and remove any bit of flesh from the bones. Depending on how good you are at filleting, you may get very little or quite a bit. If you are using cod carcasses, don't forget that cod have some delicious meat on their heads, in the form of cod cheeks.
To the fumet, add:
1/2 leek, slice finely (about 100g - use the white part of the leek here)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
200g potatoes, chopped
1 anchovy fillets (about 13g)
whatever fish flakes you recovered from the carcass.
Simmer over low heat until vegetables are very tender. Puree with a hand mixer or in a blender. Correct the seasoning with salt & white pepper to taste.
Just before serving, stir in
1 tablespoon lemon juice
small handful chopped parsley.
Makes one large serving (2 bowls).
Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 353.1
Carbohydrate (g) 35.3
Protein (g) 30.5
Fat (g) 10.4
Fibre (g) 5.5
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