Not so long ago, pollock was considered by many to be a feline fish. Inexpensive varieties were in abundance, but buyers dreamed of wonders.
Now a variety of frozen carcasses on the shelves should impress any culinary specialist, and, come, hake and pollock are among the most popular! And it's not a habit at all.
As it turned out, the rare inhabitants of the sea are not so tasty, but the prices, on the contrary, bite. So the housewives had to get the collections of grandmother's recipes and prepare time-tested meals.
In our selection of recipes from the simplest to the very “restaurant”, there is a classic and exotic, a fan of sharp and extravagant, too, will be something to eat.
Pollock Ear - General Cooking Principles
• The taste of fish soup depends largely on the choice of fish. It is almost impossible to buy pollock in not frozen form, so you have to choose frozen foods. Fish is recommended to buy in specialized stores. A quality product is covered with a thin layer of ice, the amount of which should not be more than 4% of the total weight of the carcass. Buy pollock without ice crust is not recommended. Without it, the fish during long-term storage dries and its own taste, and, consequently, the flavor of the soup leaves much to be desired. You should not buy fish and in a large amount of ice - pay extra money for water. When choosing, be sure to carefully consider the carcasses of the pollock through the ice crust. Meat should be white, without pinkish or yellowish inclusions, such specks indicate that the fish is old.
• Frozen pollock must be thawed properly. Put the fish in a bowl and wait until it thaws at room temperature. Can be packed in a sealed bag and placed in a bowl of cold water, which will speed up defrosting.
• Thawed pollock carcasses should be properly prepared and cleaned before use. Take the carcass with your left hand in the area of the tail, lay on its side on a cutting board and scrape the pelt with a knife. It should slide “towards” the scales. In the same way, clean the scales and the other side. Sever the head, moving away from the gills to the tail by a centimeter. Then turn the fish on its back, make a longitudinal slit on the abdomen and gut, carefully removing the black film. If you leave her ear bitterly. Cut off all fins, remove the tail, rinse the carcass well and pat dry. • Wuhu can be made from whole carcasses, fillets or sliced fish. Cook it on low heat without covering the pan with a lid. This allows you to prepare a concentrated fish broth, without a strong smell. To make the ear transparent as a tear, you need to carefully monitor the broth at the boiling stage, constantly collecting and removing foam that forms on the surface.
• In the ear of pollock put vegetables: carrots, potatoes, onions, sometimes add cereals. To achieve a special aroma and taste, the soup is supplemented with spices, bay leaves, black or allspice peas, fresh herbs, parsley roots. But do not add a whole lot, otherwise the broth will lose its fishy flavor.
• Salt the fish dish at the very end, before being removed from the heat. The salt added at the beginning can spoil the taste. Sea salt is the best option for pollock soup.
Pollock fish soup with potatoes - “Fisherman”
Ingredients:
• kilo of pollock;
• six potatoes;
• a small bunch of fresh dill;
• five peppercorns, black;
• A spoon with a small slide of butter;
• small parsley root;
• two bulbs;
• one and a half liters of water.
Preparation:
1. Cut carrots into small cubes, onions - half rings, and washed and shredded parsley root in small slices. Put the chopped vegetables in a frying pan, in butter, fry until the onions are transparent.
2. Put boiled potatoes into boiling water, boil until half cooked.
3. Put the fried vegetables, sliced fish into the pan. Continue cooking at low boil for up to 20 minutes.
4. At the end of cooking, add salt to your own taste, if necessary, season with spices. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.
“Balkan” pollock ear (sharp)
Ingredients:
• fresh frozen pollock - 400 gr .;
• 150 gr. sweet bell peppers;
• one bitter onion;
• four potatoes;
• Bay leaf;
• large carrot;
• one third spoonful of hot peppers; • 70 gr. rice cereal;
• vegetable oil;
• two spoons of ground paprika;
• crushed dry coriander, cilantro seeds - 1 tsp.
Preparation:
1. Pour four spoons of oil into a thick-walled pot, put on a small fire. Immediately add onion half rings, carrot chopped into strips. Simmer the vegetables, stirring, for no longer than three minutes, then add thin strips of Bulgarian pepper to them. To the vegetables that have come to half-cooked, add a tomato, mix, continue cooking for another two minutes.
2. In a saucepan with steamed vegetables pour one and a half liters of water and quickly bring to a boil.
3. Put two tablespoons of rice in boiling water, mix, add potatoes cut in centimeter cubes. Foam may form on the surface of the soup, it must be constantly removed.
4. As soon as it begins to boil, reduce the heat, add cilantro, red pepper, paprika, coriander, continue cooking at a moderate temperature.
5. When the potatoes are half cooked, dip the sliced fish into the broth. Give the ear lightly to simmer for fifteen minutes, then put a bay leaf into it and remove from heat.
Pollack soup with cucumber pickle and pickled cucumbers - “Kalya”
Ingredients:
• mid-sized carcasses of pollock, with a total weight of one and a half kilograms;
• 250 ml of brine from salted, but not pickled cucumbers;
• 2 liters of water;
• a pound of potatoes;
• two salted cucumbers of small size;
• half an average lemon;
• one carrot;
• saffron;
• 2 onions;
• allspice - three large peas;
• parsley root;
• two bay leaves;
• a teaspoon of tarragon.
Preparation:
1. Parsley root finely chop along with onions. Cut potatoes into medium-sized slices or short cubes, and carrot into small cubes. Boil two minutes of the filtered cucumber pickle and set aside.
2. Boil water, dip vegetables in it and boil over low heat until half cooked potatoes. 3. Add a small pinch of saffron, allspice, chopped salted cucumbers to vegetable broth. Immediately pour boiled cucumber pickle.
4. Put fish in boiling vegetable broth and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Do not forget to collect foam after boiling.
5. When fish and potatoes reach readiness, put bay leaves in your ear, add tarragon. Pour in squeezed lemon juice, stir and let it brew for a quarter of an hour.
A simple recipe for pollock soup with pearl barley
Ingredients:
• a pound of pollock;
• five small potatoes;
• half a cup of barley;
• large juicy onion;
• a small handful of onion peel;
• two medium carrots;
• two medium bay leaves;
• ready-made spices “For the first fish dishes”.
Preparation:
1. Put the fish into the pan, cut into large enough pieces, pour one and a half liters of water and put on the maximum heat. Rinse thoroughly, best in warm water, onion peel and put it in a pan with fish.
2. When the fish broth boils, remove all the foam from the surface, reduce the temperature and cook until the fish is ready for about half an hour.
3. Remove the ready-made pieces of pollock from the broth, put in a separate bowl. Be sure to cover the fish with a lid so that it does not weather.
4. Fish stock broth, using gauze, into another pan, and put on heat. When it boils, add carrots chopped on a grater, thin onion half rings. Pour in the barley washed with cold water.
5. When the cereal is well-cooked, add medium-sized pieces of potato, dip the bay cake, season with the ear with spices, lightly salt. Boil until potatoes are ready.
6. From the cooled pieces of pollock, remove the ridge and lower the pieces in the ear, about five minutes before readiness.
Pollock ear with tomatoes
Ingredients:
• three large potatoes;
• 700 gr. pollock;
• one onion;
• root parsley - one root;
• two fresh tomatoes;
• fresh parsley or dill; • water - two and a half liters.
Preparation:
1. Cut the processed carcasses of pollock into pieces and place in a saucepan. Pour a liter of water, add peeled and chopped parsley root and put on intense heat. When the broth boils, remove the foam. Reduce the heat so that the broth is only slightly boiling, and continue to cook for half an hour, or a little more.
2. Dip the tomatoes for two minutes in boiling water, then, for a minute, in cold water. Carefully remove the skin from the tomatoes, cut the flesh into small pieces.
3. Pour a half liter of water into a clean pan. Put finely chopped carrots, chopped tomato pulp, medium-sized sticks of potatoes and onion slices.
4. With a high heat wait for boiling, then lower the temperature and continue cooking with a small boil. Be sure to salt, add spices if desired.
5. Carefully shift the fish to the almost cooked vegetables, add strained broth in which the pollock was boiled. Bring vegetables to cooked on low heat without covering.
6. Sprinkle the prepared ear with finely chopped greens and let it stand for a while.
Recipe for fragrant pollock soup with vodka
Ingredients:
• good vodka from grain alcohol - a tablespoon;
• 800 gr. fresh frozen pollock;
• large onion;
• a small bunch of dill;
• large carrot;
• black pepper - 5 peas;
• three bay leaves;
• a bunch of parsley;
• small lemon;
• pitted olives;
• potato - four tubers, medium size.
Preparation:
1. Thawed and gutted pollock carcasses, rinse and rinse. Cut into portions, put in a saucepan, and put to cook, pour 3 liters of water.
2. When the water boils, add a little salt, remove the foam. Reducing the heat to medium and without covering the lid, continue to boil for a quarter of an hour.
3. Put small carrot cubes, coarsely chopped potatoes and whole onion into boiling fish broth. 4. When the potatoes are ready, add black peppers, laurel leaves and finely chopped parsley to the ear of the pea. Pour in vodka, mix thoroughly and, with the lid on, set aside for at least 20 minutes.
5. From the present soup, remove the onion, add the chopped dill into it. When serving in each plate put on a thin slice of lemon, olives.
Pollock Ear - cooking tips and useful tips
• Ready fish broth, before adding other components of the soup, it is desirable to filter.
• Do not discard head, fins and tail when cutting. Put them together with the fish in the water, previously tied up in gauze - the ear will turn out to be rich.
• Fresh lemon juice will help to get rid of sustainable and not everyone likes the smell of fish. Sprinkle them fish a couple of minutes before laying in the water.
• Onion peel added at the beginning of cooking will give a beautiful color to the ear. If you want to lay the whole bulb, drop it right in the husk, cut in half.
• A little bit of butter, as well as finely chopped fresh greens, added after the readiness, will significantly improve the taste of pollock soup.
