Sardine Soup

[**Sapphire**]

Cat Food Recipe Ingredients:

2 canned sardines
pat of butter
1 cup water
few stalks of watercress
fish sauce (optional)

Cat Food Recipe Directions:

Put the sardines and the pat of butter into a heavy-based frying-pan and place on a medium heat. As the pan warms and the butter melts, mash the sardines into it. When the butter has completely melted, pour in the water and stir as it comes to a boil. Thoroughly shred the watercress and toss into the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool. Puree, and add a dash of fish sauce.

[Matthew]

Ingredients:

2 cans ofchicken broth (15 oz ea)
3 large shallots, chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves
OR
2 inch piece of lime peel
3 Thai chilis (or serranos), sliced open but left whole
2 stalks of lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed, and mashed
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon palm sugar (Don't use white sugar. If you don't have palm sugar,
leave it out.)
2 cans sardines in tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) diced/stewed tomatoes
1 cup shredded mint leaves (chiffonade)


Directions:

Put the broth, shallots, lime leaves or peel, lemongrass, peppers and sugar in
a saucepot and bring just to a boil. Cover and turn off the heat and go away
for a few minutes while it takes flavor - maybe 10-15.

Stir in the tomatoes, lime juice, fish sauce, bring up the heat to just simmer.
Stir in the sardines, careful not to break the pieces up too much.

Let heat through. Remove the kaffir lime leaves/peel and lemon grass before
serving, with a goodsized handful of mint to garnish. Stir the mint into the
hot soup so that it is semi-cooked.

Lemon grass is often used to flavor soup stocks in SE Asian cuisine, much like
in the west use bay leaf. It won't be edible this way, so pull it out before
serving. Use only the bottom 6-8 inches of the stalk (the bulb-y part), which
should mash or split open to release the flavor.

This soup is a great quick dinner, since most of the ingredients are cans you
can pull off the shelf - goes together in about 20 minutes. We like this on
Friday night.

[Ossie28]

Ingredients:

2 onions

2 leeks

1 small bunch fennel

2 tomatoes

5 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

pinch saffron

1 bouquet garni

salt and pepper

2 small potatoes

8 large fresh sardines

2 slices bread

Directions:
1 Peel and chop the onions. Clean and wash the leeks and fennel. Chop them finely. Bring a small pan of water to a boil. Dip the tomatoes in for a few seconds, drain them, put into cold water then peel and chop them. Peel and crush 4 cloves of garlic.
2 Pour the oil into a saucepan and gently saute the onions, leeks and fennel in it on low heat for 10 minutes without them coloring. Then add the tomatoes and crushed garlic, the saffron and the bouquet garni. Add 4 1/2 cups of water, salt and pepper and let it cook for 25 minutes with a lid on the pan.
3 Peel and wash the potatoes. Cut them into cubes and add them to the saucepan after it has been cooking for 15 minutes.
4 Clean the sardines. Rub them with a cloth to remove the scales. Remove the heads and rinse in clear water. Dry them and add them to the pan after the vegetables have been cooking for 25 minutes. Bring to a boil again and cook for a further 10 minutes.
5 Cut the remaining clove of garlic in two. Rub the slices of bread with it. Cut the bread in pieces, arrange them on the baking sheet and toast them under the broiler.
6 Warm up the soup tureen. Add the soup and take out the bouquet garni. Serve hot, with croutons.