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Bouillabaisse

Recipe by Peter Evans from Short Orders

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Bouillabaisse came from very humble beginnings but nowadays, this hardy seafood soup is served in the top restaurants in the world.

Mediterranean fishermen are thought to have come up with bouillabaisse as a way of using up the odds and ends of unsold fish.

The key, according to Pete, is to make a rich stock or base for the soup, and that means marinating the fish for 24 hours. Unless you can give it that long, it just won't have sufficient flavour. And while there's lots of debate over what should be in a bouillabaisse,

Pete says it's the characteristic flavourings such as Pernod, saffron and tomatoes that distinguish bouillabaisse from other seafood stews and soups.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

1 small onion sliced as thinly as possible
1 stick celery sliced thinly
1 leek sliced thinly
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 l to 3 l fish stock
Sea salt
Seafood squid, scallops, mussels, prawns - whatever you have
Toasted sourdough bread or crusty bread
Gruyere cheese for melting over the bread
Of chervil or parsley for garnish

Soup base

3 whole rock fish like ocean perch small size, cut into large pieces
6 cloves garlic sliced
½ leek sliced
3 bay leaves
6 tomatoes chopped roughly
3 pinches of saffron
1 sliced carrot
1 stick celery sliced
1 cup chopped fennel
1½ tablespoons fennel seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup pernod
Cracked pepper
2 zest oranges
1 stalk parsley bunch

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Method

Marinate all the ingredients for the base overnight or up to two days.
Sauté all the base ingredients in a large pan with a touch of oil for a few minutes.
Add the tomato paste and cook for two minutes.
Add the fish stock bring to the boil and simmer for one to one-and-a-half hours.
Blend, then pass through a strainer, add salt to taste.
Pour into another pot with the celery, leek & onion and bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and add the seafood (mussels then prawns and fish). This should take about two minutes.
Pour into an extra hot bowl that has some thinly sliced squid in it, a scallop and possibly an oyster or half a scampi.
Top with some toasted sourdough topped with gruyere cheese and grilled.
Garnish with chervil and cracked pepper.
Note: Bouillabaisse is traditionally served with a rouille, which is a French mayonnaise made from a base of cooked potatoes, saffron, capsicum, garlic & onion.

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What do you think?

rita September 2009

i agree with geoff im doing a project on it and it doesnt seem quite right except it does look delicious

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Geoff August 2009

The recipe is not clear as to what goes where and when. The soup base marinade soaking overnight, with what of all the ingredients listed?

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Mick July 2009

And people don't forget to have a glass of Aussie cab/sav , just the ticket on a cold winters night.

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Noelle February 2009

Thanks Peter, Simone. I'm going to try the bouillabaisse with the rouille. Not sure the family can still pronounce the french terms convincingly, though.

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simone February 2009

I havent made this recipe yet. But I have an old french recipe handed down from my french provincial grandma. I was looking for a recipe that had some australian fish (I didn't know the aussie equivalents of the fish in my recipe). This recipe seems basically the same (except for the pastis/pernod addition, yumm), and the cheese on the bread (sounds like soupe a l'oignon) think I will just stick to the rouille here is the recipe for that: put 50grams of the white of the bread into milk to soak. In a mortar and pestle (or your mix master...don't tell Mami!) mash 2 garlic gloves (more if you love garlic), Mix in 4 chilli (cayenne) not hot. Some people use capsicum. Then drain the bread and put the bread in, mix. Add bit by bit 200ml of olive oil (less if it comes into a mayonnaise thickness beforehand) to make a mayo consistency. This is where you really need the mixer. I think that the rouille is the best part of the bouillabaisse, so I'm going to give the cheese the flick, and stick with what the French do best (or second best) sauces! Love your work Pete. Simone

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