No. 130 — Fish Soup with Pearl Barley: Whitefish, Pike-Perch, Tench, Pike or Sturgeon
Complete English translation of recipe No. 130 in Elena Molokhovets’ 1901 Russian cookbook, preserving the historical preparation, quantities and sources.
Finely chop one onion and fry it in a spoonful of butter. Add one spoonful of flour, mix and dilute with broth made from roots, spices, and fish bones, skin and head, previously strained.
When it boils, add five or six sliced potatoes, salt and prepared whitefish that has been cleaned, salted and cut into pieces. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until cooked.
Before serving, add pearl barley separately cooked with a spoonful of butter, nutmeg, pepper crushed not too finely and chopped fresh parsley. Alternatively serve the fish as a second course and whiten the soup with sour cream.
To provide
1 onion and 1 spoonful of butter; 5–6 potatoes 3–4 Russian pounds of fish and 1 spoonful of flour ⅓ glass of pearl barley and 1 spoonful of butter | Optional nutmeg and 5–6 black peppercorns Greens and optional ½–1 glass of sour cream |
Another method: make and strain a broth from roots, then put into it three Russian pounds of any fish and cook. Add pearl-barley porridge separately cooked with a spoonful of butter and beaten until pale; sprinkle with greens and serve with the fish cut into portions.
To provide — second method
2 carrots, 1 parsley root, 1 leek and 1 celery root 2 onions, 10–15 allspice berries and 2–3 bay leaves | 3 Russian pounds of fish and salt ½ glass of pearl barley, 1 spoonful of butter, parsley and dill |