Soup

Cod and Mussel Chowder (non dairy, 4 servings)

Ingredients: - 800 grammes NZ Deep Sea Cod 
                       - 500 grammes NZ Green Lip Mussels (about 10 pieces)
                       -  2 large potatoes
                       - 1 medium size carrot
                       - 1 large onion ( half or 1 small one if you use ready made fish broth)
                       - 1 stalk celery
                       - Half of a leek ( white and light green part only)
                       - 500 grammes tomatoes
                       - 6 cups fish broth if ready made broth is used, otherwise, follow the ingredients                               below for fish broth)
                       - 2 tablespoon olive oil
                       - 2 tablespoon cooking oil
                       - Sea salt
                       - ground pepper
                       - flour
                       - parsley to garnish


For the Fish Broth: 
                      - 4 fish heads or bones and heads of 2 whole fish
                      - 8 cups of water
                      - 1 small or half of a large onion
                      - 2 cloves garlic
                      - 1 teaspoon pepper corn
                      - 2 to 3 bay leaves
                      - 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Method:

1. Prepare the fish broth first. Clean thoroughly the fish heads, make sure all clotted blood is removed and clean the slimy stuff from the gills. It is not necessary to remove the gills if they are cleaned thoroughly. Dry them and set it aside.
2. Cut the onion into sections and smash the garlic.  Heat up the cooking oil in a stockpot, put in the onion and garlic and sauteed them for a minute, add the fish heads and fry 1 to 2 minutes on each side. 
3. Add 8 cups of water, bay leaves and pepper corn, put the lid on and bring them to boil. Leave it boil vigorously for 3 minutes then turn the heat down to low and let it cook for another 30 minutes.
4. While the broth is cooking, scrub the mussels and set aside.  Cut the potatoes into approximately 1.5cm or half inch cubes, cut the carrots into half cm or quarter of an inch cubes. Cut the onion and celery the same size as the carrot. Cut the leek into rings about quarter of cm wide. Cut the tomatoes similar size as the potatoes, discard seed and the core. You can remove the skin if you want. 
5. Heat up the olive oil in a big heavy bottom saucepan or casserole that you will use to cook the chowder.  When the oil is hot, put in the tomatoes and sauteed them till they are starting to break down/dissolve. Put in the onion and leek, stir them for 1 minute and add the celery, carrot and the potatoes, sauteed them for a minute.
6. Scoop about 10 ladles (about 5 cups)  of the fish broth from the stockpot to the vegetables or till it just covers all the vegetables.  Make sure you do not include any bones or peppercorn. ( If ready made fish broth is used, put all the 6 cups in ) Once boiling,  turn the heat to low and cook for an hour.
7. There should be about 2 cups of fish broth left in the stockpot, discard all the bones and bay leave and peppercorn. Bring it back to boil and put in the thoroughly cleaned mussels. Take out the mussels when their shells open and set them aside to cool down, discard any unopened mussels.
8. Use a fine strainer or muslin cloth to strain out all remaining small bones or sand given out by the mussels in the broth. Top the soup up with 2 ladles ( about 1 cup) of broth, if there is any more broth left, either use it to top up the soup later or keep it for future use.
9. 15 minutes before the soup is ready, remove the shells and beard of the mussels and cut each mussel into 3 or 4 chunks and set aside. Cut the Cod fillet into 8 pieces, dry them with paper towels and season them generously with sea salt and ground pepper. 
10. Heat up the frying pan with 2 tablespoon cooking oil, dust each piece of fillet with flour and put them in the frying pan when the oil has heated up. Make sure the bottom side is cooked and sealed  before you turn the fillet to the other side. 
11. Put the mussels into the soup, add sea salt to taste. Serve the soup in a bowl with 2 pieces of cod on top and garnish with parsley.

Hint:

- No matter how thorough you scrub the mussels, there will be sand giving out.

- Fish broth could be replaced by water.

- Dusting the fillet with flour is to reduce oil splattering and help the sealing of the surface. This     step could be skipped.