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February 17, 2010

The forgotten tomato...

Somewhen last week, I watched a cooking show, where Lea Linster prepared a fish soup. I remembered that Christmas dinner, when I was a child and my mom and my godmother cooked their first ever Bouillabaisse, that tasted absolutely heavenly! Though, I also remember that they have never cooked it again, because it was a lot of work. I still feel its rich taste in my mouth, so I decided to prepare a fish soup too, and followed the recipe of Lea Linster.


The first task was to get the right fish for the soup. Before doing anything at all, I checked the WWF fish list to see if the fishes in the recipe are recommendable or at least acceptable. The Swiss WWF list has 4 categories and I wanted to stick to the first two. I needed sea bass, gilthead seabream, gurnard and red mullet. The first two I found recommendable from organic breeding in France. So far so good. I found out that red mullet from the Eastern-Central Atlantic is acceptable and also the gurnard from the North-East Atlantic. I made my notes and went to get the fish. I decided not to buy the gurnard, so that way I only would buy one acceptable fish the rest should be okay.


I was stainding in front of the fresh fish section in one of the big supermarkts in Switzerland. The salesperson asked friendly if he can help, I reacted a bit slowly, because I was shocked to see a big yellow fin tuna and bunch of tuna fillets for a special price, right in front of a WWF poster for sustainable fishing. I was a kind of shocked. I decieded to ask the salesman what fish would he recommened to buy for a soup. His answer came fast and direkt: monkfish. I said immediately no and told him that is highly overfished. His answer was: oh well yes, but buy it as long as it is available - and he wanted to grab a fillet to pack it in for me. I got kind of angry, but I stood calm and simply said, well it wouldn't be overfished if stores wouldn't sell, just like that tuna and I looked at the big yellow fin, while I was wondering who on Earth would buy that fish and didn't even want to think about that it probably would end up in the garbage. Then he said, that they work together with WWF and that this tuna would be okay. Well he was totally wrong, the only tuna that is okay according to WWF, Greenpeace and MSC is the white tuna, just check the list by yourself. At the end I had my organic sea bass, seabream and also found a red mullet in another shop and in the evening I cooked that wonderful fish soup. I really hope that people start more and more to inform themselves and consider twice if it is really worth to buy that piece of monkfish!

Ah and why the forgotten tomato? Well the recipe calls for tomatoes, but I forgot to add them, so my soup is not that red, but it tasted amazing together with the fresh bread and the rouille.


Ingredi
ents:
1 sea bass
1 seabream
1 red mullet

1 fennel bulb
1 leek
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon tomato puree
olive oil

some fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
saffron
salt, pepper


Chop vegetables and sautee in olive oil until soft, add garlic an sautee for some more minutes. Cut the fish in pieces and add it to the vegetables among the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes, the fennel seeds, the bay leaf. Pour hot water over it and cook for 15-20 minutes. Before it is cooked add the saffron. Puree the soup ( I removed the heads of the fishes) and press it through a sieve. Season and serve.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

leider ist das in allen Läden so, Geschäft ist Geschäft, und das kommt zuerst. Da nützen alle Labels nichts.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A gorgeous soup! It looks so inviting...

Yes, when money is the question, nobody cares about the environment!

Great to know that you also love TON ;-p!

Cheers,

Rosa

Vera said...

I swear from now on, I will pay attention when buying fish!
To lamiacucina: this is the wrong attitude! We, the buyer, should shape the market and not vica versa. The more people pay attention on these things, the better and healthier the lifestyle, the environment will be.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love a wonderful bouillabaise and this looks(and sounds)utterly delicious! I have to say, we get good organic fish here in France(maybe still on the expensive side) and lately we even have very nice Irish smoked salmon, easily avalaibale for all at the stores. It is such a difficult issue, because the market depends on us the consumer, but with bio foods still so expensive, it is just not possible for the consumer to dictate the availability/markets.
Ronelle

Alexandra said...

It's great to read how you bought the fish! People still don't care about overfishing, although it's a very important issue. If everybody bought a fish like you...

Houdini said...

Poah, what great photos!
I am sorry for your experience in the supermarket, it must have been really disturbing and disappointing, frustrating. I was almost shocked to read the story. Nevertheless, I may try a Bouillabaisse one day, which I so far never dared to do.

chriesi said...

@lamicucina: Ja so ist es, leider. Aber zum Glück können wir frei entscheiden.
@Rosa: Sad, but true.
@Édes és keserű: You are absoultely right!
@Ronelle: Thanks! Well, sure that kind of fish is not cheap. However monkfish and tuna are both expensive, so it is not only a question of the money.
@Alexandra: Thank you! I hope more and more people start to care before it is too late!
@Houdini:Thanks so much! Well, it is definitely not a nice story.

Marysol said...

Well, I'm glad you stuck to your guns, and I almost feel sorry for the guy behind the counter...not really.

Lovely soup, and even lovelier photography!

Andreea said...

Hi, I will definitely try this soup.

A leg finomab halaszlet Magyaraorszagon etem, valahol a Balaton partjan. :)

chriesi said...

@ Marysol: Thanks. Well, I know what you mean. ;)

@ Andreea: I hope you will like it, and do not forget the tomato. ;)I had the tastiest fish at the Balaton, when I was a child.

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