Let"s Cook Ukha (Fish Soup)

For ages ukha (Russian ukha) has been cooked differently. In V.V.Usovs monography it is referred to as follows Russian cooks used to cook ukha in a monastic way and Tsar-style, in archbishop way and Astrakhan-style. Also there was ordinary ukha and languid ukha, celebration ukha (with saffron) and peasant ukha... He even mentions ukha with champagne

Cooking time —
Complication —

In recipe book

For ages ukha (Russian ukha) has been cooked differently. In V.V.Usov"s monography it is referred to as follows "Russian cooks used to cook ukha in a monastic way and Tsar-style, in archbishop way and Astrakhan-style. Also there was ordinary ukha and languid ukha, celebration ukha (with saffron) and peasant ukha..." He even mentions ukha with champagne.
In cookbooks and special fish cuisine literature you can find many ukha recipes under different names, including fisherman"s ukha. However even the most successful recipes have a general character and lack many important details. Cookbooks do not take into account ukha prepared in field conditions. Tourists cook ukha differently – everything depends on their tastes and habits, on the amount of available fish and the assortment of accompanying products. Anyway, it is possible to distinguish the basic recipes of tourist ukha and describe its, so to say, "basic" recipe.
When you have caught a lot of different fishes, the first question is which to use for ukha. As a rule, the more various the fish assortment is, the more delicious the ukha is (although in fish cookery there are recipes for one-fish ukha, for example, made of perch only).
All fishes, even the finest ones, have to be cleaned. It is difficult to agree with supporters of "true ukha" made of non-cleaned fish. In fact, excrements get into the broth together with unextracted inwards. However, do not scale fish that is to go only for broth, as the scales give flavouring and sticky substances when boling.
To make rich aromatic broth ("yushka") take the finest fish and only when you do not have enough add larger ones. Heads, fins and bones go into ukha together with the fine fish. To ensure the best transition of extractive substances into the broth all those things, except for fins, are better be crushed.
This broth composition is filled with cold water whose amount is determined by the number of portions and fish availability. If you lack fish, reduce the portions to make the broth richer. When measuring water, take into account its evaporating. Even at weak boiling half the water volume evaporates in about 40-50 minutes. Adding water to ukha is undesirable. To enable the best transition of fish extractive substances into the broth, add some salt in the very beginning of boiling (consider evaporating).
A good ukha, besides broth, should contain fish slices. Even if your catch is small and the fish is fine, leave a few pieces of larger fish "for meat" cutting off heads, tails and fins. Prepared carcasses, as well as cut-off fillet or simply sliced pieces if the fish is large, are put into the boiling broth for 5-8 minutes before the cooking ends - depending on the slices thickness. Do not overboil tender flesh. To check for the readiness, pierce the slices or carcasses with a thin wooden stick: it should easily penetrate through.
Restaurant.Ru recommends:

Threefold Ukha
150g sturgeon fillet
200g perch
250g pikeperch
100g carrots
150g onions
30g olive oil
50g fresh herbs
salt, pepper

Cooking:

Cut carcasses of pikeperch and perch. Brown carrots and onions. Add water. Fish slices. Fresh herbs. Salt. Boil, take out the ingredients. Bone the fish. Cut carrots. Put sturgeon pieces into the broth and boil. Add all ingredients and fresh herbs to the cooked dish.

Fisherman"s Ukha
500g small fish
400g pikeperch or other large fish
400g potatoes
4 onions
2 tbsp oil spring onions, parsley, dill
bay leaf, pepper and salt to taste

Cooking

The most delicious ukha is ukha made of different fishes boiled together. Take fine fish, clean, put in a saucepan, fill with cold water, add salt, parsley, dill, bring to boil and cook at low heat until the fish is thoroughly boiled. Filter the broth, add sliced pikeperch or other large fishes, peeled small potatoes, small onions, add peppercorns, bay leaf, salt to taste and cook until ready. When serving add butter, finely chopped fresh parsley and dill, spring onion to the plates with ukha.

Tsar Ukha
1 chicken
800g small fish
300g pike
500g pikeperch
4 potatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
2 tbsp butter salt and fresh herbs to taste
two egg whites for clarification
for pancakes:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp oil salt and sugar to taste
for filing:
150g boned boiled chicken
150g boiled pike
1 onion
2 tbsp butter

Cooking

Put chicken in a saucepan with cold water, add salt, boil until ready and take out. Then put small fish into the same broth and boil it down completely. Filter the broth and throw away the small fish. Clean pike and pikeperch, rinse, slice and boil in the same broth. Filter the prepared broth again, cool to 70С and clarify with whisked eggs. Slice potatoes into segments and boil until half-ready, julienne carrots and onions and fry to golden colour. Put potatoes, onions, carrots, pikeperch pieces into pots, fill them with broth and put in oven. Separately prepare pancakes with chicken and fish forcemeat.
Pancakes. Stir eggs, salt, sugar with cold milk, add sifted flour, mix with a metal whisk and bake pancakes from this pastry. Fill half the pancakes with chicken and fold as a crescent; fill the other half with fish filling and fold as an envelope. Then pour with melted butter and bake. Filling: bone boiled chicken and grind with fried onions. Prepare the fish filling in the same way.

Sterlet Ukha
1kg sterlet
800g small fish
1 celery root
1 parsley root
1 onion
2 spring onion stalks
1 glass champagne
bay leaf
half lemon
black pepper (corns)
salt

Cooking

Make spicy vegetable broth, add cleaned and scaled small fish, boil and filter through gauze folded 2-3 times. Add cleaned and sliced sterlet, and bring to boil. Cook 30 minutes skimming and not letting boil hard. At the end of cooking add dry champagne to the ukha.

Pike Ukha
500g pike
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 tomatoes
2 onions
2 tbsp vegetable oil
parsley root, bay leaf, fresh herbs, pepper and salt to taste

Cooking

Cut pike into portion pieces, add salt, put in a cold place for 30 minutes. Meanwhile boil the rest of the pike (scales, fins, tail, head, caviar, milt) for 15 minutes. When the broth starts boiling add peeled onions. Filter the broth, add fish and julienned potatoes, cook 3 minutes, add sliced and browned onions and tomatoes. Add spices 10 minutes before completion.

White Sea Fish
1kg fish
2 cups milk
2 cups water butter and salt to taste

Cooking

Clean small fish cutting off heads and tails, put in boiling milk (it can be diluted with water), add some salt and cook until ready. At serving put butter in the plates.

Black Sea Ukha
1.5kg fish
2 l water
2 onions
1 carrot
1 parsley root
4 potatoes
2 tbsp semolina or millet
2 sweet peppers
3 small tomatoes
fresh herbs, salt, bay leaf, black peppercorns and ground pepper coriander grains, flavory pepper to taste

Cooking

Clean, rinse and cut fish, if it is small leave whole. If the fish is large, make sure you remove eyes and gills, as well as a small cartilaginoid bone in the lower skull which makes the boiled ukha bitter. Salt boiling water a bit, add diced potatoes, semolina or millet, sliced roots and finely chopped onions. Cook at moderate heat 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are half-ready, add spices and continue cooking 10 minutes more, and then add fish. Add sliced peppers and tomatoes. Cook 10-15 minutes at moderate heat. Add finely chopped fresh herbs and salt a minute before it is ready. Leave the ukha to rest.

Siberia Ukha
800g fish
1-2 onions
fresh herbs, pepper and salt to taste

Cooking

Make a broth out of jowl and filter it. Then boil portion fish pieces in this broth. Right before the serving put raw onion rings on the plates. Serve pies or buns separately.

Oceanic Ukha
500g sardines and capelin
1 onion
1 carrot
2 tomatoes
2-3 potatoes
parsley root, bay leaf, black peppercorns and salt to taste

Cooking:

Clean sardines and capelin, remove heads. Rinse the fish, put in a saucepan, fill with water and bring to boil. Add chopped onions, segmented potatoes, tomatoes, parsley root, salt and cook 20 minutes at low heat until ready. Dress with pepper and bay leaf.

Burlak Ukha
300g fish
1.5 l broth
400g potatoes
100g onions
1 parsley root
40g butter dill, parsley, pepper and salt to taste

Cooking:

Put whole small potatoes and fine onions in the boiling broth made of small fish. At the end of cooking add salt, bay leaf and pepper. Put pieces of boiled fish in pots, add butter, fill with ukha, bring to boil in oven, and dress with fresh herbs.

Bon appetite!