Halaszle Recipe (Hungarian fish soup)

Despite my tagline and signature, I have had a few people ask me for my Halaszle recipe (Hungarian carp soup), so I thought I would post it for anyone else that might be interested.  My favorite recipe is the "Egervari family recipe" which is very labor intensive ( I have also lost this recipe).  The recipe below is an easier version that I learned from a Hungarian chef ( I was lucky finding a chef for a flatmate).

I enjoy cooking, most of my experience is with the Hungarian and Korean kitchen.  I am happy to share any of my recipes (though I use recipes more as a loose guide than an instruction manual).

Enjoy.


Halaszli:

Ingredients:
-Fish: I use carp and "keszeg"(I don't know its name in English) perch might also be good with the carp.  The idea is to have 2 fish types with slightly different texture/flavor

-Onion (I prefer yellow) 1 onion per 2 lbs of fish (more if you like onion)

-Paprika (Hungarian is best.)  I usually mix 1/3 sweet paprika with 2/3 spicy.
I use about 2 tablespoons paprika per 1 lbs fish, though most recipes   call for less.

-Green pepper 1 or a half per lb of fish: This should be a spicy pepper. Szeged peppers are best, but are hard to find in California. I try to find a pepper that has high heat, yet retains some flavor.

-Flavorful pepper 1 or 1/2 per lb fish. I use cherry peppers or some other flavorfull pepper that still has a little heat.

-Salt (to taste)

Instructions:
 Prep: Clean fish and cut off head/tail.  Keep the heads and tails for the broth, keep the roe if you wish to add it to the soup.  Cut fish in to morsels (a little larger than bite size).  Salt fish and refrigerate.


1.  Cook chopped onion in a deep frying pan with a little ollive oil, add fish heads and tails.  Add enough water to cover the fish. Boil covered for an hour or so. The idea here is to extract the essence of the fish and sweetness of the onion for your broth

2. Mash mixture and push broth through a mesh colander.

3. Put broth in a soup pot, add water and heat.  Add fish morsels, paprika, peppers, salt to taste.  Low boil until fish is done, stir gently as to not break apart the fish.  (If you want to add roe, add it fish is about half done.) 

I like to serve this soup with a nice crusty baguette. 

Jo etvagyat!

Thank you for the recipe Auburntroutfisherman! I will try it first chance I get. Substituting ocean fish to freshwater fish, eventhought results in a delicious soup, it will not be the same ...if you know what to expect