not done with fish yet...

i have another soup (what a surprise!) for you, this time with fish. the nets were doing their thing at the cottage and dad pulled out a big burbot along with the pikes. you know burbot, the ugly fish, that hasn't got scales but skin? the ugly bugger was frozen at the cottage.

basic fish soup ingredients: fennel, shallots, potatoes (i used 4 for this soup), dill and some leek that didn't make it to this picture







i started by adding water to barely cover the pieces, in went whole peppercorns and little salt, this was simmered for 10 mins after which i got the fish out and strained the stock







fennel, leek and shallots finely chopped. i gave them a minute alone to wilt on the kettle before adding the potatoes and pouring in the strained stock







veggies were left simmering for 15 mins, meanwhile i deboned the fish and returned the pieces back to kettle for the last 5 mins







after the potatoes were done, i turned the stove off, added 1 dl of cooking cream, some dill and left the kettle on the hot stove for 5 more mins, very nice with rye bread







somehow, while i was away, the mailman had brought a package to me. after i discovered the pioneer woman and knew of her cookbook, i knew i had to have it







i had thought of making every single recipe of a cookbook even before i saw julia/julie, but had not managed to decide which one (they're all so thick...) perhaps it was amount of cooking and inevitably making something that would be tossed because (confession time) i do have my culinary inadequancies (liver comes to mind first, followed very quickly by kidneys). anyways, i was showing this book of cakes to certain someone and half jokingly saying that i would bake every cake on this book in 2010. he looks at me and asks "are trying to make me fat? do you realize you'd be baking a cake almost every fourth day? who's going to eat them all?" i answered i was going to sell them cheap to the neighbours, but he does have a point, that's a lot of cakes...







this one seemed like it has very simple asian recipes, maybe i'll cook all in this book...







i've made jim lahey's no-knead bread a few times, i first heard about it on the martha show. the no-knead bread really is easy to make and requires very little hands on work on the dough, however, you need to plan ahead as the first rise takes up to 24 hrs. i got his book to try the variations of no-knead, and i think i really should start baking more bread if i'm ever going become any good at it







hope you all are keeping warm, my thermometer's showing -14 C right now, brr!