Pink salmon is considered one of the most useful and delicious types of fish. From it you can cook a variety of delicacies. Milk, fillet of this wonderful red fish is fried or baked in the oven, salted caviar, and delicious ears are cooked from heads and tails. Pink salmon head and tail fish soup is a wonderful light lunch for all family members. This dish is prepared very simply and is eaten in one sitting.
Of course, the main ingredient of the fish soup is the head of a fish. It is she who makes the broth rich and nutritious. But the housewives, who, after cutting the carcass, throw their tail and fins, according to experienced chefs, are doing wrong. After all, these parts can also be used to prepare a delicious first course.
How to cook fish soup from the head of pink salmon? What should be added to the broth? How much to cook the head of pink salmon for soup? We will try to answer these and other questions in the article.
About the benefits of pink salmon soup
Fish soup made from the heads of pink salmon, or just an ear, belongs to the category of first courses that have become really popular among housewives and have earned special love from fishermen, tourists and just outdoor enthusiasts.
According to nutritionists, this treat is not only tasty, but also very useful. A large number of essential trace elements and vitamins makes the ear an indispensable component of the daily diet. The presence of omega-3 non-fatty acids in red fish protects the body from malignant neoplasms, improves the condition of the skin. Vitamins of groups B, A, C and PP have a beneficial effect on the physical and mental abilities of a person. In addition, pink salmon meat contains a lot of iodine, chromium, phosphorus, sulfur and magnesium, which are actively involved in the metabolism.
Delicious pink salmon soup: how to cook?
Wuhu is considered one of the easiest and fastest to cook dishes. It is enough to first boil the broth, and then season it with spices and vegetables. If the ear is cooked from canned food, then, as experienced housewives assure, everything needs to be done the other way around: first boil the vegetables, and then add the canned food.
Of the spices for cooking fish soup, bay leaf, pepper, herbs, celery, parsley and salt are best suited. They give the dish a specific aroma and taste. To make the soup from the head of pink salmon more nutritious, tasty and nutritious, vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onions) and cereals (millet, pearl barley, rice, sometimes buckwheat and peas) are added to it. The standard set on the basis of which the ear is cooked is the head and tail. Many add to it other carcass fragments (fins, pieces of meat), but, as a rule, the head and tail are enough.
Cooking soup from the head of pink salmon (if desired, you can add the tail, fins, etc.) takes very little time - about fifteen minutes. If other parts of the fish are used, you need to properly clean the carcass, remove as many bones as possible from it. After the ear is ready, it is covered with a lid and allowed to infuse.
About proper product handling
One of the most common questions regarding the secrets of making pink salmon soup that young housewives ask in the forums is the question of how to handle the product at the initial stage.
Experienced culinary experts recommend to eliminate the presence of bitterness and undesirable turbidity of the broth in the cooked dish, be sure to perform the following steps:
- remove eyes from the head of the fish;
- get rid of the gills (they must be carefully cut with a knife as much as possible);
- too large a head should be cut into 2 - 4 parts;
- immediately before cooking, the workpiece should be rinsed with steep boiling water and rinsed immediately with cold water.
Salmon head soup with millet: a classic recipe
You will need products:
- two heads of pink salmon;
- 150 grams of millet groats;
- 4 to 5 potatoes;
- one carrot;
- 2 to 3 onions;
- 1 glass of vodka;
- spices (salt, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorns);
- juice or slices of lemon (to add sourness).
To add tenderness to taste add 200 grams of sour cream or cream.
About cooking
According to this recipe, the head from the head of pink salmon is prepared as follows:
- You need to choose a pan in which the dish will cook. If a small company is invited to dinner, enough dishes of 2.5 - 3 liters will be enough. The same amount is suitable for preparing a family lunch or dinner.
- Cold water is poured into the pan so that fish heads are still loaded into it. For this volume, two medium-sized pink salmon heads are sufficient. The heads are placed in water and put the pan on a strong fire.
- In the meantime, millet groats (100-150 g) are washed. It is necessary to use high-quality cereals: homogeneous, clean and bright. This will ensure the beauty and usefulness of the dish.
- 3-4 medium-sized potato tubers are peeled, washed, eyes removed and cut into large cubes.
- Carrots (garden, large) are peeled and cut into strips or rubbed on a grater (medium).
- Then peel two small onions and chop.
- After the water boils, the flame is slightly reduced and millet groats are poured into the future broth.
- Millet should be cooked over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, after which the ear is seasoned with vegetables (carrots, potatoes and onions). Next, the soup from the head of pink salmon is cooked until the vegetables are cooked. In total, this will take about 15 to 20 minutes or a little more (depending on what size sliced vegetables are).
In the last minutes of cooking, if desired, you can also add bay leaf, cloves or greens and salt. To add tenderness and nutrition to the dish, about 200 ml of cream (fresh) or sour cream (rustic) is poured into it.
For those who do not want to add calories to the dish or do not like dairy products, instead of sour cream, you can add natural lemon juice (one teaspoon) to the ready-made soup, which will add flavor to the piquancy.
The final chord of preparation may be the addition of a standard glass of vodka to the contents of the pan (naturally, if the dish is not intended for treating children). According to supporters of this recipe, it is precisely 100 g of vodka that will provide the dish with an excellent taste, completely neutralizing the specific smell of the fish and eliminating the bitter aftertaste (if the gills were not removed before cooking). According to Far Eastern traditions, fish soup cannot be considered an ear until vodka is added to it.
About the variety of recipes
There are many ways to make soup from the head of pink salmon. Using the basic recipe, you can freely improvise in detail. One of the great varieties of such treats can be fish broth soup, in which red beans are added, cereal is replaced with fine pasta, butter, cheese are used instead of sour cream, and herbs and spices compositions are freely varied.
Egg soup
This recipe for pink salmon soup is slightly different from the previous one. An additional ingredient is a chicken egg, which is beaten with a fork until smooth and introduced into a nearly finished soup with a thin stream with continuous stirring. Ingredients:
- two heads (you can add two tails);
- five potatoes;
- one carrot;
- one onion;
- 1,5 - 2 l of water;
- one egg;
- to taste: pepper, salt, bay leaf, herbs, oil.
Prepare like this:
- In the broth, cooked from the head and other fragments of pink salmon, lay sautéed vegetables and potatoes and boil for a quarter of an hour.
- In the last minutes of cooking, the fish pulp and the egg are introduced, seasoned with spices and herbs.
- The ear should be infused for 10 minutes.
Rice Option
Pink salmon soup with rice is a delicious dietary option for your favorite first course. For its preparation, experts recommend choosing round-grain rice. You will need:
- two pink salmon heads (plus two tails);
- four potatoes;
- one carrot;
- one onion;
- 2 l of water;
- a quarter cup of rice;
- to taste: spices, salt, herbs, oil.
Prepare like this:
- Cook fish broth, filter, separate the flesh from the bones.
- Rice (washed) and potatoes (chopped) are laid in a boiled base. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Add vegetables, sautéed in oil, season the dish to taste, add a little greens. After that, boil for about 10 minutes.
How to cook fish soup in a slow cooker
In this device, the soup from the head of pink salmon turns out to be especially tasty, aromatic and rich. Using the multicooker allows you to prepare the broth and put all its components in its bowl, choose the appropriate mode and go to go about your business. The smart device will do the rest (it will provide the necessary boiling intensity and power). Use:
- two heads and two tails of pink salmon;
- four potatoes;
- one onion;
- one carrot;
- a quarter cup of millet or rice;
- two bay leaves;
- pepper, salt, herbs.
It is prepared as follows: the prepared parts of the fish are placed in a multicooker bowl, the “Soup” mode is selected, cooked for half an hour, filtered, the meat is separated from the bones. Then they put vegetables, fish pulp into the bowl, fill all the ingredients with the broth and, having selected the “Soup” mode, again set the timer for half an hour.