The Best Romanian Soup You Could Ever Have (not that I have an opinion about it! :) )

My friend A and I have been emailing about her soup!

I finally made it today and served it tonight to my Husband and

a good friend our ours!

Her recipe is below with my changes written in blue.

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 1-2 pounds catfish (the more the better) (2 lbs)

2 potatoes (5)

2 carrots (4)

1 celery root (or 1/2 if it's large) (2)

1 big onion or 2 small ones (1 medium 1 small)

1 red pepper

1 can chopped tomatoes (200 grams)

200 grams of sour cream (8 oz)

parsley (bunch 14 oz without stems)

I used catfish - for this kind of soup it's best to use catfish. Dice the fish meat in cubes, put it in the boiling pan and add water just to cover the meat, then take the meat out of the boiling pan. (Put the meat separately, season with salt and leave it aside.) 

You need to do this so as to know how much water to use - it's critical not to use more, otherwise the soup will not be as concentrated as it should be. 

My changes to the above: So, I was concerned that I would not have enough 

broth for what I wanted in this soup so I pretty much DOUBLED the

amount of water my friend suggested.  I had about (or even a bit more than) 1 inch of water on TOP of the fish before I took the fish out of the water.... 

 The fish was about 2lbs of catfish that I cut up,

with at least an inch of water on top of the fish... 

I got this awesome mesh spoon ladle from an Asian store

a year ago (more more)! 

It worked perfectly!

Back to my friend's recipe... 

Next, wash and dice 2 potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 or 1/2 celery root, chop 1 onion (for 1 - 1 1/2 pounds of fish meat). 

My changes: since I was using 2 lbs of cat fish and knew I was adding more water,

I used...

5 potatoes (some small), peeled and chopped, 

4 carrots, peeled and chopped,

 2 celery roots, chopped with ends sliced off and 

2 onions about (1 medium and 1 small).

Add the vegetables to the water and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste. When the water starts boiling, add one chopped red pepper. 

When the vegetables are cooked (but not too soft), 

Note, this was about 5 minutes at MOST

add the fish after rinsing it under tap water. 

Next, add one can of chopped tomatoes. 

The can of tomatoes I used was 200 grams.  It was the perfect amount.

After a couple of minutes of boiling, add lemon juice - I use one lemon; the fish absorbs lemon juice, so at first the soup might taste sour, but after a few hours, it will be less and less sour. 

I juiced one big lemon, it was perfect.

Taste to see if it's seasoned to your taste. Boil for another few minutes - take care not to overcook the fish. Catfish needs about 10 minutes to cook fully after being immersed in simmering stock. 

I did all of her instructions from when the vegetables are somewhat soft 

to turning the burner (gas stove) OFF in 10 minutes, no more.

After you see that everything is cooked, turn off the stove and after 1-2 minutes add 200 grams of sour cream and mix everything well.

You will want the 200 grams! I used half of my new container of sour cream, 8 oz of the 16 oz!

The sour cream MAKES this soup.

 After that, add chopped parsley. 

I used a 14 oz bunch of Italian Parsley, leaves and stems leaves are on but not

the long stems under the leaves.  Perfect amount. 

The recipe looks long, but the process itself is really not long, nor difficult:).

Most the vegetables stayed at the bottom, with the onion floating to top.

Once you add the rinsed fish back it is a great hearty soup.

Because I added more water, you could not really taste the 

soup as a fish soup; the fish was not 'fishy' tasting and instead

it tasted JUST like amazing soup I had in Bucharest with lamb,

except of course this had no lamb, but fish.

But the broth was the same.

It was so good, I can't wait to have more on Sunday

when we will share the rest with some friends, 

God willing. 

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And that is it for now!

I am so glad for this day and that the soup turned out so very well.

God bless each of you!