📷 · Valparaíso Caldillo de Congrio photo by Marco Antonio Correa Flores, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Soup · Chile · Valparaíso

Valparaíso Caldillo de Congrio 🐟

Name: Valparaíso Caldillo de Congrio
Prep time: 28 min
Cook time: 42 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Chilean coastal
Ingredients: 600 g conger eel steaks (or monkfish/sea bass as substitute); 2 onions, sliced in rings; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 red bell pepper, julienned; 3 potatoes, sliced; 1 carrot, sliced; 1 L fish stock + 200 ml white wine; 1 tsp papilla (chili paste) or ají; 3 boiled eggs; Cilantro, salt, pepper; Splash of cream (optional, port-style)

Pablo Neruda dedicated an ode to this fisherman's soup and Chile has never let anyone forget it: conger eel simmered with onions, garlic, red pepper and potato until the kitchen smells like the Valparaíso docks, finished with a hard-boiled egg and a scald of cilantro. Once sold cheap by port cooks who could not sell the eel, it became the country's most celebrated seafood stew — 'the best dish in Chilean cuisine,' Neruda wrote, 'when the eel is fresh.'

Valparaíso Region Chilean coastal ⏱ 70 min Medium

Method

1

Sweat onion, garlic and red pepper in oil until sweet and soft, 8 minutes; stir in paprika/ají for 30 seconds.
2

Add stock and wine, bring to a boil, then layer in potato and carrot slices; simmer 15 minutes.
3

Lower the eel steaks into the simmering broth; cook gently 12–15 minutes — do not hard-boil or the flesh breaks. Season with salt and pepper.
4

Serve deep in bowls with the vegetables on top, a halved boiled egg floating in each, cilantro scattered over, and bread for the broth.

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Valparaíso Caldillo de Congrio 🐟

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