Red salmon soup
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Red Salmon Soup © Clare Richards 2009
I am in the throes of an intense stretch of food photography with my photographer Ali George. From now until the end of December when she zips off on an international assignment, we are immersed in completing the photography for Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen. This also means I’m very busy sourcing produce and constantly shopping (at least it seems that way). Yesterday while buying seafood for the BBQ shots we’re doing, I spied bags of fresh Atlantic Salmon off cuts, gleaming in the way that only very fresh seafood does. When I found out they had been filleted that morning from fish straight from Tasmania, and that the 1 kg bag was all of $2, I nabbed a bag immediately and went home and cooked this soup. I generally buy local Queensland Catch seafood, but $2 for 1 kg of fresh salmon can’t be passed by:
Red Salmon soup
about 1 kg Atlantic Salmon off cuts (head, wings, backbone, etc.)
800g tin diced tomato
800ml water
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
3 tbsp chilli sambal (mine is mild so you may want to start with 1 tbsp of commercial types and taste)
1 lime leaf, torn along each side
1 kaffir lime leaf, torn along each side
4 fine slices of galangal
Put tomato and water into a wide large saucepan, add salmon pieces and all other ingredients, taking care to under use the chilli sambal as extra can be added later if needed. Bring the whole to the boil then reduce to a low simmer and allow to cook for 1 hour. Taste for salt and chilli and add a little extra of each if needed. This soup is supposed to have just a hint of chilli so don’t overdo it. Strain the contents through a colander sitting over a large bowl and return the liquid to the saucepan. Sit the colander in the sink and pick through the solids, removing tomato chunks and good meat to the large bowl, taking care to locate and remove bones. Return the meat and tomato chunks to the liquid in the saucepan and reheat for 5 minutes or so before serving. Serve with a generous sprinkling of fresh garlic chives. Makes 3 generous serves.
