Recipe - Kakavia

Karen Mintzias
1 cup Sliced onions or scallions
OR leeks
One half cup Olive oil
4 Tomatoes
peeled, seeded & chopped
One half Stalk fennel or celery
cut or sliced up
3 Sprigs fresh parsley
1 Bay leaf
2 Sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup Dry white wine
5 cup Water, more if necessary
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 pound Fish (3 or 4 kinds) *
cleaned and cut or sliced up
1 Lobster (optional)
cut up & claws cracked
1 pound Shrimp; peeled & deveined
1 pound Scallops (optional)
OR Mussels in shells
(scrubbed)
8 sl Bread (thick); toasted
Croutons

* Fish for poaching: bass, cod, hake, haddock, halibut, trout, pollack,
snapper, rockfish, whiting, etc.)

In a soup pot with a wide bottom, saute the onions in the oil, without
browning, until soft. Add the tomatoes, fennel, herbs, wine, and water and
bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 45
minutes. Pour the stock into a large bowl through a sieve, squeezing all
the pulp from the vegetables before discarding the fibers remaining in the
sieve. Return the soup stock to the pot and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, lightly salt the fish and let stand for 10 minutes, then rinse
with water and lower into soup, adding water only if needed to cover the
fish. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the lobster. Cover
and simmer 5 minutes longer, then add the shrimp and scallops or mussels
and simmer an additional 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Arrange the toast slices in large soup plates. Serve the varied fishes and
broth in each bowl, hot, with croutons in a separate plate.

NOTE: Kakavia is frequently made in the following variation: Cook 2 to 3
fish with the vegetables and strain with the vegetables to make a thicker
stock. Continue to cook the remaining seafood as described above.

Source: The Food of Greece, by Vilma Liacouras Chantiles

Typing errors courtesy of: Karen Mintzias

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini