Fish soup

I've been into soup lately. Judith Jones has a nice simple recipe in her recent book, and I've been inspired to run with it in several directions. Here's a fish version that's pretty much infinitely adaptable (as evidenced by the complete vagueness of the following recipe...)

Ingredients for this concoction are leeks (or some other onion), kale (or some other green thing), a tomato (or not), fish (or potatoes, or lentils, or some combination thereof), olive oil (or some other fat), celeriac (or celery, or fennel, or whatever), herbes de provence (or curry if you're in the mood for that, or cumin if you feel like going to Mexico), some garlic, and some Aleppo pepper (or whatever else you like!)

The first step is to soften the leeks and a handful of diced celeriac for a while in olive oil. While this is going on you can thaw/warm-up a couple cups of chicken stock in another pot.

Smash a couple cloves of garlic with your ultimate and perfect beach stone garlic smasher.

Once the aromatics are softened, add your herbs, chile pepper, tomato, and garlic. (Potatoes or lentils would go in at this point too.)

Add the chicken stock and top up with enough water to pretty much fill the pot. (Or just use water.)

Let this simmer gently with the lid on for about 30 mins (40 mins if you use lentils).

In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add your greens (a big cup of greens just seems to disapper into the pot, so don't worry too much if it looks like it won't fit).

Prepare the fish. I used cod, but you could go for haddock or some other firm fish. Chop it up in little chunks.

Add the fish to the pot, and let it simmer for 5 or 10 minutes until it is opaque and cooked through. Taste your lovely soup for salt and see if it needs any other boost.

And then serve it up! A nice wee glass of Calvados compliments this one nicely. This will warm you up right to the core!