Bouillabaisse, a French Seafood stew
This Classic Dish is Much Easier to Craft Than you Were Lead to believe! Allegedly, its what inspired Alton Brown to start cooking and you simply cannot argue with that level of delicious.
Serves 4-6 | Level: Intermediate (working with seafood, timing)
Ingredients
Drizzle of olive oil
1-2 leeks
4 cloves of garlic
1 fennel bulb
2 stalks of celery
4 orange peel shavings
2 bay leaves
large pinch saffron
1/8tsp of cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 c pastis (anise-flavored apéritif, you cannot skip this)
1c diced tomatoes (very flavorful ones only, like the cherry tomatoes available year round)
3-4 c fish stock (depends on how much liquid you prefer)
2 handfuls of baby potatoes like a good fingerling of yukon gold (chop up if bigger)
1 lb clams and mussels, de-bearded (use whatever ratio you wish to equal a pound shell on)
1.2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1.5 lb white fish of choice, diced into 1in ish chunks (I typically mix halibut, black cod, sea bass.)
Bread to serve (optional)
Method
NOTE: You can totally make this ahead, go through everything up until the fish is added, which is conveniently located all in the "Broth" section. Simply pull from the fridge and gently heat back up over the stove, then proceed to add prepped fish and serve. Pay close attention to timing with the fish to make sure you don't overcook it, set a timer to take the thinking out of that!
Broth:
Clean and cut white parts of your leeks into half moons or dice, chop garlic, dice up celery, dice tomatoes, measure spices and orange peels into one bowl set it aside. Heat your pot to medium. Add olive oil, add leeks, garlic, fennel bulb and celery. Sauté until soft, and your spices: orange peel, bay leaves, saffron, cayenne, salt and pepper, and deglaze the pan with the pastis. Cook for 2-3mins then add tomatoes, and the fish stock or clam juice if you don’t want to make the stock. The stock does make a big difference, it is worth asking your local fish market for the odds and ends to make it yourself. Though don’t feel like you can’t make it without your own stock, that’s silly. Bring it to a simmer then toss in baby potatoes, cook until the potatoes are soft about 10min.
For the fish:
Make sure all the fish is prepped and ready to go. Only allow the broth to gently simmer, if it’s too hot your fish will overcook. Add clams and mussels, then when they just start to open add shrimp, and a minute and a half later add mixed sea bass black cod and halibut cut into chunks. Cook for another 3-4min. Any clams or mussels that are still closed MUST BE DISCARDED, unopened = unsafe.
Ladle into your favorite bowls, top w fennel fronds if it came with your bulb, and serve to an empty tummy near you with a side of crusty bread!
Happy Eating! Did you make this? Tell me how it went below!
xoxo Slone's Kitchen
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