Hi all

I had my first go at French 'soupe de(s) poissions' (fish soup) today. The great thing about French supermarkets is that the fish counter has a little section called 'soupe de(s) poissons', so you just ask them to give you a handful of those various little rock fishes. And a few dozen little green crabs, for the stock.

All would have been well. I followed a wonderful book in French, written by three excellent restaurant chefs from Namur, the capital of Wallonia, in Belgium.

They said to put the fishes and crabs in a muslin bag, all the better to extract them. Quite right, too.

But I used the muslin bag I have used for years to strain the blackberry juice from the blackberries (we Scots call them brambles) for a sauce we make with veal/beef stock, to go with steak or duck. We have used this bag in recent weeks, as the wild blackberries have become ripe.

Result: PURPLE fish soup!

Now I'll have to buy TWO new muslin bags: one for the blackberries, and one for the fish soup, otherwise I'll have fishy blackberry sauce with my beef or duck. The old one will have to go.

How silly of me!

Phil

Ooops!!

But made me smile - and I take it the taste was as wonderful as you'd hoped?

LOL! When I started reading your post, I thought you will say that the bag burst just as the straining was completed! This has happened to me when using an old muslin bag for making jelly, as well as paneer cheese :-(.

Never mind, now you will have TWO new bags!

Mamta

Yes, Kavey, the taste was very good, though there is disagreement in the household as to whether one should leave little bits of fish flech in the soup or stick them with some of the liquid in a blender.

Mamta, if I'm to have a go at paneer, I'll need THREE muslin bags!

Phil

Or just use a thin hankie!

one things springs to mind... todays menu "fish surprise"... nothing like purple fish soup to surprise your guests... lol

Or an old pair of tights!!!!!!!!