Not every first course containing fish can be called ukha.
There are a few differences between ukha and fish soup. Ukha is made from one to three-four kinds of fish, and it must all be live or freshly caught fish. Ukha can be “white” made from starlet, Baltic whitefish, perch or sturgeon. Making your ukha with European carp or crucian carp make it “black”. Preparing stock for ukha takes little time, about 15-20 minutes, and no vegetables except for onion are added (very rarely, a few potatoes). The stock must be absolutely transparent. Often, freshly caught fish is not descaled: it’s just put into water, and as the water boils, the scales “dissolve” giving the stock that unique taste and fragrance.
While I was cooking, I thought it was going to be ukha. After making, eating and enjoying it greatly, I read information from some competent sources only to find out I’d actually made fish soup: tasty, fragrant and rich, but still soup.
Ingredients ( soup recipe
)
catfish head
spinal bone, fins
2-3 bay leafs
4-5 fruits of black pepper
2 onions
2 carrots
a handful of peas, lentils, rice and millet
greens
1. Rinse head, put into cold water, bring to a boil and reduce heat for stock not to boil, rather than simmer. Add onion, sliced carrots, parsley root, spices and leave to simmer for 1 ½ hours.
This method of cooking will give you a transparent and very fragrant stock.
2. Use a skimmer to put roots and fish head along with bones into a separate bowl. Filter remaining stock (preferably using some gauze) in a different pan.
3. Process catfish head by separating meat from bones.
4. Bring stock to a boil, add rinsed grains and cook until they are ready.
Turn off heat and add fish. Chop up greens, adding more parsley and put into pan.
Here is a smart trick. Long time ago when a cooking show “Smak” hosted by Makarevich was gaining popularity, someone came over as a guest star. I can’t remember who it was, but from then on have been using that person’s advice. For home made ukha, he recommended adding a small cup of vodka and submerge a few burning wooden splinters into stock to give it the smoky fragrance. Now that’s all ))
Serve with finely chopped garlic added to every plate
It’s all ready. Enjoy!!
PS. Don’t leave the splinters in the pan. As soon as fire dies out, take them out of the pan 
.