Subtle Saffron

I'm not completely sure if saffron provides enough of a taste for my uneducated palate to be able to detect it in cooking, but it does add a gorgeous hue when added to soups.

• Creamy Fish Soup from Kitchen Classics: Soups and Breads by Jane Price
  

Ingredients

¼ teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 litre fish stoc
125ml dry white wine
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 bay leaf
50g butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
300g skinless firm white fish fillets (such as snapper, orange roughy, bream) cut into bite-sized piees
250ml pouring cream
2 teaspoons chives, to garnish

Soak saffron threads in the boiling water.

The fish stock (I used vegetable) wine, carrot, celery and bay leaf are placed in a saucepan and brought to the boil slowly, then simmered for 20 minutes. I used an extra carrot to make up for the lack of celery.

The liquid is strained and vegetables discarded. The saffron and liquid are poured into the hot stock.

The butter is melted in a clean saucepan (I just used the same one as for the stock) nd then the flour is stirred in for 2 minutes - it becomes pale and foamy. This is removed from heat and the fish stock stirred in gradually. The saucepan goes back on the heat and the soup is stirred constantly until it thickens.

The fish is added and simmered for 2 minutes, or until cooked through.

The cream is now stirred through without boiling the soup.

This soup has a velvety, subtle flavour - there's the hint of all the vegetables that were used in the stock before, and I think this makes a huge difference as the soup doesn't just taste like processed stock. Adding a few fresh vegetables in the beginning does allow you to cheat a bit with store-bought stock, because you get the depth it brings as well as the sprightly kick of home-made ones.

This recipe has the potential to act as a curry as well - if the sauce is thickened further, it would be perfect over rice to soak up the juices. It wins votes from me as there's no fishy smell, which is my ultimate nightmare when cooking seafood.

Speaking of which, the boy and I ate out at Italy 1 in Camberwell last night and the food there is fabulous. The waitress was very ditzy and they were a bit understaffed, but they made it up ovewhelmingly in the quality of the food.

The boy and I shared a calamari entree, followed by Linguini Marinara for the boy and Barramundi and Scallop mousse tortellini in a crab bisque for myself, a side of tomatoes with buffalo mozarella, then a pear and chocolate tarte with hazelnut gelato. I'm salivating while typing this! This is the second time I've been and they've been impressive on both occasions.

I have no idea how they manage to pack such an enormous amount of flavour into each of their dishes - I was almost ready to go out the back and beg the chef to show me how to make the marinara!