Fish Soup

(Balik Corbasi)

250 gr small size fish, I use Smelt (frozen, cleaned)
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

3 cups hot water
3 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 celery stick, cut in bite sizes
2 medium onions, chopped
1 medium potato, cut in bite sizes

Garnish:
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

4-5 slices of French baton bread

Cut off the heads of the fish and de-bone. Place them on a plate and sprinkle lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper on top. Put aside.

In a medium-size pot, cook the onion, potato, celery and tomato with water at medium-low heat for about 15 minutes until the vegetables soften. Add the fish and cook for another 15 minutes. Turn the heat off when the fish are cooked, sprinkle parsley and oregano on top.

Place a slice of bread on each plate. Pour one ladle of soup over each. Serve while still hot.

But before you serve the soup, check if it needs more salt, pepper or lemon juice to your liking.

If you can't find small fish (smelt), you can also use canned fish. Sardines go very well with this soup. Keep in mind that if you use canned fish, add the fish after cook all the vegetables as it won't need extra cooking time.

One more tip is to keep the soup a little bit watery so that the bread will absorb the juice.