Carl's Hapuku Stew
This fish soup recipe plays massive respect to the ocean and the fish taken from it, by using the whole fish from nose to tail.
ROAST THE HAPUKU WINGS, HEAD AND FRAMES
I’ve made this fish soup / stew in a reasonably standard sized pot. The trick to being able to do this, is letting the frame break down first while being roasted. It is what gives the stock and soup a clean rich fresh flavour.
I’ve place a small hapuku head frame and wings in a roasting dish, drizzled with olive oil. squeezed a lemon over it, garnished with fresh thyme, mint, oregano, manuka sprigs, and srinkled with smoked paprika and tumeric. I’ve also pressed plenty of chopped garlic into the frame
The frame can be roasted on 150 degrees C for about 20-30 minutes.
2. SEPERATE MEAT FROM COOKED FRAME
There is an amazing amount of meat you can use from the cheeks, wings and frame of any fish, but particularly bigger fish like hapuku and kingfish. Once the fish is out of the oven and cools a little, use a spoon to break the fish down and retrieve any meat that can later be placed in the very late stages of making the fish soup. Place in the fridge for now.
Hapuku cheek - so good!
3. MAKE YOUR STOCK
Your roasting tray should now have a lot of fat, sinew, bones, skin etc and a whole lot of liquid, plus dried herbs, roasted lemon etc.
Tip it all into a stock pot with celery leaves, chopped whole carrot, kumara peelings (save actually kumara for the soup stage) and at least a litre of water, more if you have more frames etc. In these photos I have just made a stock and then stew for two people.
Stir and smash everything up occasionally, simmer for 40 minutes, then sieve - now you have your hapuku stock! To be honest - this is a great little drink in its own right!
4. MAKING THE FISH STEW OR FISH SOUP
Now to put it all together!
I grab a fry pan to start it all off, slightly glazing chopped kumara and chopped celery in coconut oil.
I then add some tomato paste and mustard and thyme
Then I slowly add a cup at a time of fish stock and let it reduce while the kumara starts to cook
Once the kumara has started to soften a little I transfer to a pot, with the rest of the stock, and some coconut cream.
Other ingredients that will go in the soup include grated zuchinni, spinach, more parsley and mint.
4. SERVING
Finally, the roasted meat that was pulled from the frame and cooled, is chopped and place in the stew to heat through.
Time to season with salt and pepper and serve!
