A simple, comforting fish soup from the coast of Chile, made by simmering fish bones with onion and tomato to make a flavorful broth and then cooking rice and chunks of firm white fish in it with white wine. Chile's national fish soup is traditionally made with congrio, a local cusk-eel, and served very hot.
Ingredients
Instructions
Put the water and 1 teaspoon of salt in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the fish heads and bones, the onions, tomatoes, garlic and parsley sprigs. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, skimming off any foam.
Lift out the fish heads and bones with a slotted spoon and discard them, picking off any meat and returning it to the pot.
Stir in the rice and white wine, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, until the rice is nearly tender. Add the fish pieces and cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes, until the fish is just opaque and flakes easily. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
Ladle the soup into deep bowls and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve hot, with boiled potatoes and a spicy fresh Chilean salsa, such as pebre, on the side.
Nutrition220 estimated calories per serving
Notes
Ask your fishmonger for fish heads and frames: they give the broth most of its flavor. Remove the gills first, because they make the stock bitter.
Congrio, the Chilean cusk-eel (often translated as “conger eel”), is not sold fresh in most of the United States. Any firm white fish that holds its shape in a simmering broth will do.
Add the fillets at the end, because they cook through in less than 10 minutes and fall apart if boiled for longer.
Because the rice thickens the broth as it stands, thin leftover soup with a little hot water when reheating.
Variations
Add diced potatoes and carrots with the rice, as many Chilean cooks do, or stir in a few tablespoons of cream at the end for a richer, more traditional soup.
Add peeled shrimp or clams to the pot in the last few minutes.
Add strips of red bell pepper to the stock and a pinch of oregano or sweet paprika, or finish each bowl with a squeeze of lemon.
Serve with crusty bread and a glass of chilled Chilean white wine.
Source
Cuisine: Chilean cuisine
Caldillo de congrio is one of the best-known dishes of the Chilean coast. According to Chilean food writers, it began as a simple fishermen's dish made from the day's catch, and the Spanish later added onion, garlic and pimentón. In the 20th century it moved from fishing villages into the restaurants of Santiago and Valparaíso. It is usually served in a clay bowl called a paila, and the recipe varies across the country: spicier in the north and denser in the south.
The poet Pablo Neruda made the soup famous with his “Oda al caldillo de congrio” (“Ode to Conger Chowder”), published in Odas elementales in 1954. In Chile it also has a political footnote: the Communist Party of Chile has traditionally served it to the press at an annual event.