Nothing beats a steaming bowl of soup on a cold winter evening. This hearty, vegetable-packed pumpkin soup, crowned with zesty marinated mackerel skewers, warms you from the inside out while delivering bold flavors in under an hour.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Prep time: 1 hour
Instructions
Peel and cube the celeriac, potatoes, and pumpkin. Finely chop the shallot and garlic. In a large pot, sauté the shallot, garlic, ginger, and curry powder in butter until translucent. Add the vegetable cubes and briefly fry. Pour in the stock, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, rinse the mackerel fillet, pat dry, and remove the skin (reserve it). Check for bones and cut the fillet into 8 equal pieces. Place in a bowl. Wash the lime, grate the zest, and squeeze the juice. Mix zest, 1 tbsp salt, brown sugar, and crushed peppercorns into the juice to make the marinade. Pour over the mackerel, cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Cut the reserved skin into 4 squares or diamonds, deep-fry in hot oil until crisp, drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with salt.
Purée the soup with an immersion blender until smooth. Adjust consistency with extra stock if needed, then stir in the cream. Season with salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Remove mackerel from marinade and pat dry.
Froth the soup with the immersion blender and ladle into heatproof glasses. Skewer two mackerel pieces with a crispy skin 'chip' in between on each tapas stick. Perch the skewers atop the glasses.
Enjoy your meal!
Recipe and photography: Visual Image
