A hearty fish soup for dinner

Image by Lil' El via Flickr

I was planning to prepare veggie patties or lobster ravioli for our meatless dinner last night, but my wife surprised me with a thick, delicious, Jamaican fish tea.

That's right, fish tea is fish soup -- filled with pieces of king fish steaks, fingerling potatoes, carrots, dumplings (boiled dough), hot peppers and chayote. Almost any fish would do as well. (Photo: king mackerel.)

Two bowls full, toasted baguette and wine made a lovely dinner, supplemented by two items I picked up at H Mart in Englewood -- finger maki (vegetables and rice wrapped in seaweed) and stewed pollack with peppers.

My wife used Grace-brand fish tea mix from Jamaica as the base for her soup (ShopRite in Englewood has a nice selection of Jamaican food products). The fish-flavored soup mix contains MSG. (Originally, I wrote it didn't have monosodium glutamate.)

This soup would be fairly easy to make. First, prepare two packages of  fish soup mix, according to the directions, then add the ingredients that take the longest to cook first -- carrots and potatoes. When they are tender, add remaining ingredients, plus some garlic.

Shopping notes

In one trip to Englewood today, I shopped at three of my favorite places for food -- H Mart, Balthazar Bakery and Jerry's Gourmet, where I sampled cheese and wine.

H Mart was almost empty, because the street was blocked by police for Veterans Day. I looked over the blue crabs, large Chilean sea bass fillets and fresh fish, then bought a Korean roll made with rice, vegetables and crab (not sure if it is artificial) and wrapped in seaweed ($4.99). I've sometimes heard this called finger maki. I also picked up plum tomatoes, a head of escarole and fresh collard greens. (25 Lafayette Ave., 201-871-8822.)

At Balthazar Bakery, I bought a quarter of the signature pain de siegle (sliced), a large, round, sourdough rye bread with a "B" stamped in the crust ($3.75 for a quarter). I looked longingly at the wonderful fruit tarts and other pastries, but bought none. (214 S. Dean St., 201-503-9717.)

At Jerry's, an employee was pouring Portuguese and Italian wines to go with the free cheese samples, and I tried them. I had hoped to find three complete dinners with wild fish, such as the Chilean sea bass I had recently, but had to settle for farmed salmon and farmed tilapia. The restaurant-quality dinners are only $6.99.

In the back of the store, there were a couple of cases of imported Pomi marinara sauce, from fresh tomatoes, in aseptic packages that don't need to be refrigerated. At two 26.45-ounce packages for $3.99, they were a good deal. Each would be more than enough for a half-pound of pasta. (410 S. Dean St., 201- 871-7108.)