WAKE-UP SOUP

In the first several years that I lived in Spain, we always went to Málaga during Semana Santa (Holy Week) to see the religious processions, with their amazing pageantry. Drums and trumpets keeping a mournful rhythm. Flowers, candles, hooded penitents. The thrilling squad of legionnaires marching behind the Christ of the Good Death. Images of the Virgin Mary with jeweled teardrops. The piercing wail of a saeta, a love song to the Virgin.

It seemed there was a bar on every corner, offering tapas special for Holy Week—salt cod, shrimp, fried fish. There was someone to run out with beers for the costaleros—burly men carrying the heavy floats bearing sacred images of Christ crucified.

It was usually 2 or 3 in the morning as we watched the processions wend their way back to their home churches. By then, cold and tired, we needed a pick-me-up.

Chunks of fish and clams in a saffron broth, a fine pick-me-up soup.

Traditionally, the soup was served in bowls like this one. In the old days, coffee was served in bowls too.

This soup, caldillo de pintarroja, a Málaga specialty, is just the ticket--warming, restorative, eye-opening. Once a fishermen’s pre-dawn wake-up brew, it became a favorite tapa in Málaga bars and is much touted as a cure-all after a night of bar-hopping. Unusually in Spanish cooking, the soup packs a real jolt of chile.

Caldillo actually means “broth,” not soup. The broth has chunks of fish—pintarroja—and clams in it.  Ground almonds and bread thicken it slightly.

Pintarroja (Scyliorhinus canicula) is a very small member of the shark family, similar to the much larger cazón or dogfish. Like other specimens, it does not have bones, but rather a spine of cartilage, making the fish easy to eat.

Plate for bones and shells.

This is a real working-man’s soup, so it’s served with “bones” and clam shells. Provide side plates for the desperdicios, the remains. If you prefer a more “couth” version, cook the pieces of pintarroja in the stock, strain them out and, when cool enough to handle, remove the center “bone” (cartilage). Or, use bone-free chunks of fish, such as dogfish or monkfish.



In the traditional version of this soup, not saffron, but colorante is used for the vibrant gold color. I've used saffron here.

It’s many years since I have been to Málaga during Holy Week. Now, I can watch the processions on TV. But, I do miss the wonderful tapas.

Broth with Fish and Clams
Caldillo de Pintarroja

How much chile? The soup should be picante—spicy-hot. But the quantity depends on what chile you’re using and your tolerance for hot foods. Spaniards generally have a very low tolerance! I used two small dried cayenne chiles for a very medium hit. Still, it was a good wake-up soup.

I bought three pintarrojas, each weighing about 1/2 pound. I used two for this recipe. They were already cleaned and skinned. The polka-dotted skin is so rough that it used to be used as sandpaper. Flesh of any of the sharks must be eaten very fresh or else preserved in an adobo marinade.

Serves 6.

1 pound skinned dogfish or monkfish
¾ pound clams
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup blanched and skinned almonds
2 slices bread, crusts removed
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/3 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup peeled and chopped tomato
Chile peppers, to taste
8 cups fish stock or water
¼ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon saffron, crushed
Salt
Málaga seco wine (optional)
Sprigs of mint or parsley, to serve
Lemon wedges, to serve

Cut fish into pieces.

Cut the pintarroja crosswise into 1-inch pieces. (If using dogfish or monkfish, cut into 1-inch cubes.) Wash the fish well. Put the clams in a bowl of lightly salted water so they disgorge any sand.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a skillet and fry the almonds, bread and garlics, stirring, until they are golden. Remove.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet and sauté the onion and green pepper until softened, 3 minutes. Add the tomato and chile and continue sautéing until tomatoes release their juice.

Heat the fish stock or water in a soup pot. Add ½ cup of the stock to the crushed saffron. 

Blend almonds, sofrito.

Place the fried almonds, bread and garlics in a blender container. Add the sofrito of onions, peppers, tomatoes and chile. Add the cumin and saffron and its liquid. Blend to make a fairly smooth paste.

Whisk the paste into the stock in the pot. Add salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon, unless the stock is already very salty). Bring to a boil, stirring, and cook 5 minutes. The bread and almonds will thicken the broth slightly.

Add the pieces of fish and the clams. Cook until clam shells open, 5 to 6 minutes. If desired, add a little Málaga seco wine. Serve the soup very hot garnished with mint. Serve accompanied by lemon wedges.

Fish chunk has center cartilage.

The "bone" for discard.

Garnish the soup with fragrant mint and lemon wedges.

Another recipe for pintarroja is here.

Watch the Spanish Foreign Legionnaires in the ceremony carrying the image of the Christ of the Good Death, Málaga Holy Week, 2015  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gk1XIOSgfc .

FIVE-STAR SEAFOOD SOUP

Seafood soup (sopa de pescados y mariscos).

 Spain has dozens of fish soups—Catalan suquet, Andalusian sopa de rape, Galican caldeirada, Murcia’s caldero. Most of these are basic fishermen’s fare—the catch of the day cooked up in sea water with olive oil and garlic plus bread or potatoes to add substance to the broth.

The Basque version of seafood soup also starts out as a simple marinero preparation. But over the years, as it was adapted by restaurant chefs, the soup has become the five-star standard of Spanish fish soups. So incredibly delicious that it rivals bouillabaisse and other famous seafood soups of the world. This one is outstanding enough to serve to guests on special occasions, especially if made with luxury ingredients such as lobster.

The difference between this soup and the everyday version is that it requires making a fish stock, then a sofrito, then adding enough fish and shellfish to really turn it into a main dish.

Fish head and trimmings for stock.

Crustacean shells (shrimp, lobster or crab) give the soup its depth of flavor, so, if possible, choose shrimp with heads and shells. The restaurant where I first tasted this impressive soup didn’t remove the shells from the clams. They made a little clatter as the soup was ladled into plates. And, you had to get your fingers into the soup to eat them.

When I buy fish, I save the heads, bones and trimmings in the freezer for making fish stock. Likewise, when I’m cooking shrimp, I buy whole ones, unshelled, and save the heads and shells for stock making.

Cuttlefish adds flavor to soup.

Cuttlefish (jibia, sepia) and squid are especially good for adding flavor to seafood stock. Plus, you can add the cooked cuttlefish to the finished soup.The cuttlefish pictured here is cleaned of innards, ink sac and cuttle bone. It's ready to cut up and cook. 

Simple fish broth

If using cuttlefish or squid, save it to add to the final soup. Likewise, cooked fish can be picked off the bones and saved for the soup.

Makes 10 cups broth

1 pound small fish, fish heads, bones, trimmings, shrimp shells, small crabs, lobster shells, whole cuttlefish, etc.
12 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 onion
strip of lemon peel
strip of orange peel
1 stalk of celery
small carrot, split lengthwise
several stems of parsley
pinch of thyme

Place all the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil and skim. Partially cover and simmer for 1 hour. Strain the stock. Save bits of fish for the soup and discard remaining solids.

Saffron goes into this seafood soup.

Seafood Soup
Sopa de Pescados y Mariscos

Monkfish is such a perfect fish for this soup because it’s flavorful and firm, so it doesn’t disintegrate in the broth. Also good is rockfish, such as scorpionfish. I used monkfish plus skate plus cooked cuttlefish from the stock plus flakes of corvina, also from the stock.

Serves 6 as a starter or 4 as a main dish.
   
10 ounces whole, small shrimp with heads
½ pound Manila or littleneck clams (or 1/4 cup shucked clams)
¼ cup olive oil
2 leeks, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup brandy
½ cup white wine
7 cups simple fish broth (see recipe above)
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned
pinch of cayenne
salt to taste
pinch of crushed saffron threads
2 slices toasted bread
1 pound boneless monkfish, cut into 1-inch pieces and/or lobster
    chunks
parsley to garnish
strips of bread fried in olive oil to garnish

Peel the shrimp and reserve them. Keep the heads and shells.

Put the clams in a small pan with 1/2 cup water. Cover and place them on a high heat until shells open. When cool, remove shells and discard them. Reserve clams. Sieve the liquid and add to the fish broth.

In a soup pot heat the oil and sauté the leeks, onion, garlic and carrot for 5 minutes. Add the shrimp shells and continue sautéing on a high heat until contents just begin to brown. Remove from heat.

Add the brandy. (If desired, it can be set alight and the mixture flambéed.) Then add the wine, 1 cup of the fish broth, the tomatoes, cayenne, saffron and salt to taste. Cook the mixture for 20 minutes.

Add the toasted bread, broken into pieces and cook another 10 minutes.

Place the contents of the pot in a food processor or blender and grind as smoothly as possible. Press the pulp through a sieve, discarding the remains of shrimp shells.

Place the pulp in the pot with the remaining fish broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. (The soup can be prepared in advance up to this point.)

Shortly before serving time, add first the chunks of monkfish or lobster to the soup and cook 3 minutes. Then add the reserved and peeled shrimp and cook 2 minutes. Then add the shucked clams and cook 2 minutes. Taste again for salt. Serve garnished with parsley and strips of fried bread.