Friday, November 14, 2008

Need you!! Fill these with Greek Fish Soup?

Next time I talk before I think please remind me to do some research first!
Short story: I need a recipe for authentic Greek fish soup (Psarosoupa?) preferrably rather uncomplicated to make and palatable for 25-odd teenagers and a teacher. Soup's up for a grade.

Situation is this:
My handsome, very friendly, easy going, 15yr old firstborn also known as Son nr. 1 is currently in his 5th year of our Dutch highschool. One year to go before embarking to University... (yikes, but that's a whole other chapter). Anyway, he is taking Greek and one of the highlights of this 5th year in school is the trip to Greece, to see for themselves what they've been studying. He had a great time, but it wasn't only fun and freedom; they are required to do a project which besides translating enormous bodies of Greek texts also has to include a paper about one of the sites they visited, eventually leading to a presentation for class and teacher. Grade will count with his final exams.

He and a friend chose to highlight the Greek god of the sea and oceans; the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Sounion; narrowing it down to his wifes, mistresses and his children. Hmm, boys will be boys.

Dining table discussion of said project presentation:
Son: Mam, we need something to stand out, something that will add a touch of uniqueness.
Silly me: well, dress in toga and trident, do your talk while offering samples of Greek fish soup... Poseidon = water + fish = soup?

They ditched the toga and trident (why? I wonder) but kept the fish soup idea, even mentioning it in their paper.... which got a rave review from their teacher. Teacher even highlighted the recipe and doodled a charicature of himself drooling over fish soup...
Handsome, Friendly, Easygoing Son nr. 1: Mam, you'll make the soup?

SIGH!

I happen to have an assortment of white fish in the freezer, found recipes on the internet using more or less similar ingredients. One serves the soup pureed and uses half of the fish/vegetables as an aside dressed with lemon/olive oil. The other is a clear soup with vegetables and fish, using lemon juice in the stock.

What to do? Anyone a great authentic recipe to be served in paper cups? Help?!

12 comments:

  1. He's already in the fifth!!! dear me, where is the time?
    So you put yourself on the spot there.. wish I could help, but I know hardly anything about Greec food, have no cooking book about it either. Maybe you could write some greec foodblogger for the recipe?!
    Lovely idea though I think they should stick with the toga and trident to make it complete.
    Best of luck with the soup!!

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  2. Heb familie in Griekenland, ik vraag het even na. Hoop dat ik je op tijd een antwoord kan geven.

    Yvette

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  3. I would probably be the very last person to get a good recipe for Greek fish soup from but I'm positive that either Peter from Kolafagus or Ivy from Kopiaste will have something worthy of making.

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  4. What a great and original idea for a school presentation! But lots of work for mum...

    Hope you find a good recipe.

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  5. Yes! How time flies... 15 and we were looking at a university today!

    Fijn Ivette, dank je!

    Giz, thks, I'll check them out!

    Inne it was a kind of jokey statement at first..

    I already wrote to Laurie from Meditarranean Cooking in Alaska and she replied with a great recipe which I'm going to try, it's called Kakavia. It's somewhat similar to the recipes I found on the net. Very pleased to have a tried recipe to follow. Keep them coming!

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  6. Hi Baking,
    Toevallig beschik ik over het boek Culinaria Griekenland. Mja, veel recepten met vis, maar weinig soepen. Ook ik trof alleen de Kakawia. Misschien kan je er een zelfgebakken stukje brood bij serveren met de Griekse variant van rouille ofzo?
    Ik heb hem even overgetypt:

    KAKAWIA
    Griekse vissoep

    1,25 dl olijfolie
    2 uien in ringen
    2 wortels in plakjes
    2 stengels bleekselderij in plakjes
    3 tomaten, ontveld en in plakjes
    1 kg visfilet, zonder huid, van versch. Eu vissoorten
    1 teen knoflook gekneusd
    1/2 bosje bladpeterselie fijngehakt
    1 laurierblad
    sap van 1 citroen
    zout
    versgemalen zwarte peper

    Verhit de olifolie en bak hierin de uienringen, plakjes wortel en bleekselderij zacht. Voege de tomaten en een beetje water toe
    en laat alles met deksel op de pan 30 minuten pruttelen.
    Doe de vis, knoflook, peterselie en laurier erbij. Giet er zoveel water bij dat alles onderstaat. Laat het 10 min koken totdat
    de groente en de vis gaar zijn (roer voorzichtig zodat de filets niet uit elkaar vallen)
    Haalr de filets uit de pan en verdeel ze over de borden. Breng de soep op smaak met citroensap, zout en peper en giet over de filets.
    Serveer met versgebakken witbrood.

    bron: Culinaria Griekenland

    groetjes
    Aranka

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  7. Geweldig Aranka, bedankt! Ik heb het donkerbruine vermoeden dat ze in Griekenland gewoon maar 1 soort vissoep maken...
    Ik ga lekker alle recepten vergelijken en een husseltje maken.

    Toch niet gek die Culinaria serie; ik heb Frankrijk.

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  8. You're such a great mum!

    Go for the puree version. So many children don't like lumpy soup and lumpy fish soup might go down like a cup of cold you know what.

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  9. @ Amanda: oops! That's a very good advice! Never thought about that but I think you're so right!

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  10. Hi!! Probably it's late for this, but I strongly recommend two delicious Greek fish soups: psarosoupa avgolemono and kakkavia.

    This is one link I found for psarosoupa avgolemono but there must be plenty of them:

    http://www.bigoven.com/132232-Psarosoupa-Avgolemono-(Fish-Soup-with-Egg-And-Lemon-Sauce)-recipe.html

    Good luck!!

    Eva

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  11. Ik ben nieuwsgierig hoe het is afgelopen! Wat voor soep heb je gemaakt? Wat vonden de leerlingen ervan?
    Van zo'n leuk verhaal wil ik ook het einde horen!
    Vuursteentje

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  12. Hi everyone! Planning to make a test batch this week, and will update as soon as I can. Promise!

    (Seems the presentation is not due for another 2 weeks, phew!)

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