AI-generated
Halászlé — Hungarian Fish Soup with Paprika
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Source: https://recipheon.com/en/recipes/soups/halaszle-hungarian-fish-soup-with-paprika
About this recipe
Halászlé is a Hungarian carp soup in which sweet paprika gives the broth a deep red color. This home version takes its cue from the soup made in Baja: it is left unstrained and served with short egg noodles cooked separately. Instead of a whole fish, it uses cleaned, skin-on fillets, while finely chopped onion is first softened in water. The paprika is blended with hot broth so it does not burn in fat. The carp is then cooked in large pieces without stirring with a spoon, helping it keep its shape. Choose good-quality Hungarian sweet paprika; a small addition of hot paprika gives the soup a noticeable heat without overwhelming it.
Ingredients
Soup and noodles
1200 g raw skin-on carp fillets, without scales or large bones, edible weight after cleaning
220 g peeled raw onion
36 g Hungarian sweet paprika, ground and not smoked
2 g ground hot paprika
200 g dry gyufatészta egg noodles in short strands
18 g fine salt, divided
1800 ml water for the soup, plus about 2 l water for cooking the noodles, drained after cooking
Steps
Choose fillets that the fishmonger has thoroughly cleaned, removing the backbone and larger bones. Run your fingers over the flesh and use tweezers to remove any bones you can feel, keeping the skin on; even prepared fillets may still contain fine bones. Cut the fish into large pieces about 5–6 cm wide, rub with 12 g salt and refrigerate while the onion cooks. Chop the onion very finely into pieces about 2–3 mm across.
Put the onion in a wide pot with a capacity of about 5 l, pour in 1800 ml water and add the remaining 6 g salt. Bring to a boil, then cook uncovered over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Keep the broth steadily bubbling until the onion has softened and become translucent; do not sauté it beforehand and do not strain the liquid.
Transfer a ladleful of hot broth to a bowl and thoroughly mix in the sweet and hot paprika, working out any lumps. Pour the mixture back into the pot and stir. The paprika goes directly into the liquid, not hot fat, so it does not develop a bitter, burned flavor.
Add the carp to the pot along with any juices that have collected in the dish. Bring the soup back to a boil and cook uncovered for about 15–20 minutes over medium heat, keeping it bubbling evenly. Do not stir the fish with a spoon; if needed, gently rock the pot by its handles. The thick pieces should then be cooked all the way through, and the flesh should flake easily while remaining in large pieces; if the thickest piece is still translucent in the center, cook for a few minutes longer.
AI-generated When you add the fish to the soup, start heating about 2 l water in a second pot. Toward the end of the fish's cooking time, add the noodles to the boiling water and cook, usually for 5–8 minutes, stirring at the beginning, until the strands are tender but still springy; start checking after 5 minutes. Drain, discarding the cooking water. Do not cook the noodles in the soup, as they would absorb too much broth and thicken it with starch.
Divide the noodles among 4 deep soup plates. Carefully add the carp pieces with a wide spoon, then ladle over the hot soup with the onion. Serve right away so the noodles do not have time to soak up too much liquid. Watch for any small bones as you eat; cooking does not remove them.
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