Spicy Fish Soup

Last night, I couldn't sleep again.  About midnight, with my brain very buzzy, I decided to find a new recipe to make today.  This Spicy Fish Soup in Tana Ramsey's Home Made was the only one to appeal enough for me to plan to make it.  Our weather recently has been decidedly summery (temperatures in the high 20s) and, even though we were forecast to have only mid-20s today, I thought that this wasn't too wintry a soup that I would cope.  Weather-wise, it was quite warm during the day but now (late afternoon) it has turned quite chilly and after I post this I'm getting warmer tops out of the attic!

Recipe:
Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan on low-medium heat, add 4 large onions (peeled and roughly chopped), 4 garlic cloves (peeled and finely chopped), and 2 red chillies (deseeded and finely chopped).  Cover and cook 8 - 10 minutes, until softened.  Add 3 each red and green capsicums, deseeded and chopped, and let them sweat until slightly softened.

Pour the contents of the pan into a food processor along with a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, and blend until smooth.

Return the mixture to the pan and add 1.5 litres good quality fish stock, 2 tsp fresh or dried marjoram, and 1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add salt to taste, then stir in 700 g fresh cod or pollack (or barrumundi, in my case!), skinned and chopped into 4cm chunks, and 100g peeled raw prawns.  Cook gently for no more than 10 minutes - be careful not to overcook.  (I found this took more like 4 minutes).

Add 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, and serve in warm bowls.  If you like it hotter, add Tabasco sauce to taste.  These quantities serve 6 - 8.

My experience of Tana Ramsey's recipes is that her quantities are massive.  I halved mine for this, and still - huge!  I also don't own a food processor, so I had to process the first part in batches.

I must admit, this was a pretty good choice for today.  My complaint though is that it felt it was missing something in the flavour department.  Admittedly, I couldn't find any parsley, but that didn't seem to be the missing bit.  Maybe a rasher of bacon, but I'd like it to stay as a recipe suitable for pescatarians.  After a (much-needed) nap though, I realised coriander would be a wonderful flavour to add to this, and next time I'll do a Jamie Oliver and chop up the stalks to include with the onions etc, then add the leaves at the end.  I think I am a genius.