Rough fish stew recipe??

[FNQCairns]

Hi, due to only 2 fishing trips so far this year I have in the fish section of the freezer only forgotten fish, some are bagged as skinless fillets, most are the less desirable species but I have forgot what they where, I also have 2 or 3 whole reef fish gilled, scaled and gutted I planned to cook whole but never got around to it, happy to throw these in whole.

Anyone a relatively simple soup x stew recipe I might use to cook it all up all in one go (approx 3-4kg), needs to be at least a bit healthy so not full of coconut/cows cream or artificial flavourings and the smell shouldn't have that recognisably fishy smell when dished up...if that makes sense.

Never done this before so any advice welcome.

[FNQCairns]

Ok getting closer after researching heaps, hard to build a tasty stew..actually i now know it's probably a chowder recipe i am looking for.

Seems i may need to use some bacon as a base and evaporated milk too...very hard to make a healthy but tasty fish chowder!...quite easy to make a tasty but unhealthy one.

[sleepygreg]

He he he. You picked the wrong night to ask the question FNQ...I think everyone is watching the origin match.

I have to admit I read your post earlier in the day and have been thinking about it. What my sticking point is, is the quantity of fish you want to use in one hit.

Chowder was the first thing that came to mind....but 3 - 4kg of fish makes a crap load of chowder. Its not necessarily unhealthy either.

I would be thinking about using the whole fish as a baked recipe - now thats healthy!!

The fillets maybe you could do some clear asian style soups (do em in bulk and freeze em in serving sized containers) which is still goinf to give you a crap load of food.....and they are VERY healthy.

Most people associate soups and stews with heavy type meals - and therefore must be unhealthy - this is not necessarily the case. Though most fish type stews are reasonably light.

Maybe you could make some fish pies...they are delicious and great winter warmers.

A question that may help me...and others...answer your question. What do you mean by "unhealthy"?

[FNQCairns]

True Greg but I am not in a real hurry, i take your advice, smaller might be better intially anyway.

i have a 12L pot I use for my other cookups/stews then freeze the bulk for later, I think im pretty good at those now, even the harder to make tasty fully healthy ones after 20 years of trying with many failures but this chowder caper has got me stuffed.

I might be able to use the whole fish to make stock?? then can I use the flesh in the main cookup so I dont waste it or will it be ruined? never made fish stock.

Still lots of reading to go...don't want to copy any of the failures i had in the past cooking stews, the wind up here has not stopped for a solid month and might continue for 2 more!

cheers