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Nadiya Hussain’s Revival Fish Broth

This easy, comforting recipe for revival fish broth from Nadiya’s Simple Spices on BBC2, features prawns simmered in a fragrant turmeric broth.

From the book

Introduction

Every culture has its soup, its penicillin. Well, we have many and this is one of my favourites. What I love about this is that it uses no spices at all. It’s simple to make and really does feel like you have been revived after eating it.

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Ingredients

2 tbsp shrimp paste
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 ltr water
6 cloves garlic, grated
4 tbsp fish sauce
1 Scotch bonnet chilli
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 lime leaves, thinly sliced
80g fresh baby spinach
1 courgette, thinly sliced
150g mangetout, halved
25g dill, finely chopped
300g raw prawns

Method

Prep: 3 minutes. Cook: 18 minutes (+cooling).

Start by adding the shrimp paste and turmeric to a large saucepan with the salt and a splash of the water. Mix it with enough of the water so that the shrimp paste is no longer a clump. Now add the garlic and fish sauce and mix.

Take the Scotch bonnet and pierce to release the flavour and only some of the heat. Add to the pan with the onion and lime leaves. Now add the baby spinach, courgette and mangetout, bring to the boil and as soon as it has boiled, leave to simmer till the veg has cooked through.

Add the dill and raw prawns and bring to the boil one last time, then take off the heat.

Leave to cool for 30 minutes, allowing time for the flavours to develop. It’s best eaten not piping hot. Serve and feel revived.

+ If you are struggling to find the shrimp paste, you can always use a flavoured curry paste of your choice, like Thai green curry, tom yum or even miso. It will change the flavour, yes, but it will still be totally delicious.

Reviews

1.7 out of 5 stars

3 Ratings

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3 Comments

    default user avatar Hazera

    People may be disappointed with this recipe because it is not meant to be eaten on its own. It is usjally eaten with rice and has more root vegetables in it but I suspect Nadiya had to come up with a simple recipe the BBC thought would work for the audience. It is a very salty and acquired taste. The shrimp paste was enough without the extra salt or fish sauce. Or forego the paste entirely and use more fish sauce and half the salt. I love the version of this dish my family makes and we put naga AND green chillies and chillie powder in it. A bowl on its own is going to hard to eat without any starch to soak up the broth. Even noodles would help. I am from a Sylheti background too and the dish itself was not the version anyone really eats at home.

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    default user avatar Jan F

    Extremely dissatisfying!

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    default user avatar Baker Roz

    Thought this was far too salty .. very disappointing as usually really like her recipes

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From the book: Nadiya’s Simple Spices

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