French fish soup
The key thing about French fish soup is that it’s smooth, with no chunks of fish. In the classic version, fresh fish are cooked in a veggie broth, skin, bones and all. The soup is then blended and strained through a sieve. Alternatively, fresh or frozen fish fillets may be used. The soup is traditionally topped with rounds of toasted bread (croûtons), grated cheese (Comté, Emmental or Gruyère) and a spicy rouille sauce.
The flavor of French fish soup varies across the country. Onion, garlic, leek, tomatoes, finocchio, bay and thyme are generally used. In the south, dried orange rind, saffron and cayenne may be added to the broth. In the north, celery and carrots may be used instead of finocchio. Feel free to include any of these optional ingredients, or not.
The soup may be made with any lean fish — cod, halibut, haddock, sea bass, red snapper, etc. etc. The advantage of using whole fish is that the bones impart flavor and body.
The quantities below will serve 3-4 people.
2 pounds (1 kilo) fresh or frozen fish
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 bulb finocchio (fenouil)
1 leek
3 tbsp. olive oil
4 tomatoes or 1 can (14 oz / 400 g) plum tomatoes
1 branch fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. sea salt or table salt
freshly ground black pepper
1.5 quart (1.5 liter) water (6 cups)
1 dried cayenne pepper (optional)
1 pinch saffron (optional)
1 small strip dried orange peel (optional)
several rounds of toasted bread, preferably baguette
4-6 tbsp. grated cheese (Comté, Emmental or Gruyère)
4-6 tbsp. rouille
parsley for garnish (optional)
If using whole fresh fish, have your fishmonger gut it, remove the scales and chop off the heads, tails and fins. If using frozen fish, defrost it. Rinse off the fish and set aside.
Peel and chop the onion. Peel and halve the garlic. Slice off and discard the green bits of the finocchio, slice the bulb in half lengthwise and chop crosswise. Chop off the end of the leek and slice the white part into rounds (you can reserve the green part for another use).
Heat the olive oil to sizzling in a large soup pot. Add the veggies. Stir to coat with the olive oil. Turn the heat down to medium. Chop and add the tomatoes. Add the thyme and bay, salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When the veggies have wilted and the tomatoes have started to break down, add the water and the optional ingredients if using. Bring to a boil.
Add the fish and cook at a simmer for 30 minutes.
While the soup is cooking, toast the bread, grate the cheese and make the rouille if using (which I recommend, but it’s not essential).
When the soup has cooked for 30 minutes, turn off the heat. Pour the contents of the large soup pot through a colander into a clean pot. This is the fish soup base. Set aside.
Remove the bay leaf and thyme branch from the colander. If you’ve used whole fish, extract and discard as many fishbones as possible.
Transfer the contents of the colander to a counter-top blender or, if using an immersion blender, transfer back into the large soup pot. Add two ladlefuls of the fish soup base. Purée, in batches if necessary.
Set a sieve over the pot with the fish soup base. Pass the purée through the sieve, pressing down on it with a wooden spoon or spatula to extract as much as possible. Discard what remains in the sieve. Continue until you’ve strained all of the purée.
When ready to serve, reheat the soup gently. Serve each bowl topped with a toasted round of bread. Garnish with parsley if you like. Bring the rouile and grated cheese to the table.
Serve piping hot. Serves 3-4.
The texture of the soup is very good, and it looks similar to what I had in Chamonix many years ago, but the flavor is not the same. The fennel flavor was noticeable and I don’t remember it being in the Chamonix soup, so I am inclined to replace the fennel next time with celery and carrots. I used sea bream (Dorade) which is a mild-flavored Mediterranean white fish that I like very much. I made exactly half of the recipe, used no substitutions, and followed the directions exactly. The Chamonix soup was more brown than saffron colored and had a rich fish flavor. I am wondering if there’s anything else in addition to celery and carrots (in place of fennel) that I might add to the soup, e.g., parsnip, anchovy, butter, something else? I wish I could go back to Chamonix and eat that soup again and I hope someday to be able to reproduce the flavor I remember. In any case, thank you for posting this good basic recipe and solid method. I enjoyed eating the soup, and I hope I can eventually be able to make the soup I remember.
Hi Marian. Such an interesting comment! Of course you can try different additions to the soup and leave out the fennel (which is typical of fish soup in the south of France, but not in other parts like Brittany). Ditto the saffron. As for replicating the soup you had in Chamonix, why not phone up the restaurant and ask for the recipe? I’ve done this on occasion, and have even published some such recipes on this site, e.g. risotto with radicchio, which I got from a restaurant in Venice. If you do get the recipe, please send it along. I suspect that the brown color may have come from the use of a well-browned roux (flour and butter mixture) as a soup base. Wonder if I’m right… Cheers, Meg
Thank you for your quick reply! You wrote: “I suspect that the brown color may have come from the use of a well-browned roux (flour and butter mixture) as a soup base….” I think I will want to try this. At what point would you recommend doing it? Before adding the vegetables and sauteing them for 20 minutes, or doing it in a separate pan and adding it to the soup with the stock, or something else? I also like the idea of trying to contact the restaurant, which I would do immediately if I could remember the name, but maybe I can look up restaurants in Chamonix and see if anything comes to mind. I remember where it was, roughly, and I remember what other people with me had for dinner, so I could just look at menus, and maybe I’ll get lucky. If I manage to get a recipe from the restaurant, I will certainly share it here!
I would make the roux separately, allowing it to brown lightly (not too much, as that could create a disagreeable burned flavor), and would add a ladleful of fish soup base to it, allowing it to thicken for about 5 minutes. Then I would transfer it into the completed soup. Hope that works!