Bouillabaisse Recipe

Origin: France      Period: Traditional

Ingredients:

Bouillabaisse is the hearty and classic French seafood stew that's associated with France's Atlantic sea ports, especially Marseille. The ingredients are varaible and can include a whole range of sea food. But the dish should always contain aniseed-flavoured fennel and Pernod.

3 red mullet, scaled, cleaned and gutted
450g white fish fillets
1 sea bass (about 900g), scaled, cleaned and gutted
250g prawns
5 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 leeks, finely chopped
1 fennel bulb, finely chopped (reserve the fronds)
675g ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
1 tsp toasted fennel seeds, crushed
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 strips of orange peel
1 strip lemon peel
2l water
1 tsp saffron
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp Pernod
40 mussels

Bouillabaisse Preparation:

Method:

Remove the heads from the prawns and shell them (reserve the heads and shells), fillet the whole fish (reserve the head and bones) and cut the fish fillets into 4cm chunks. Cut the other fish fillets into 3 or 4 pieces, each.

Add the olive oil to a pan and use to fry the onion, garlic, leek and fennel, cooking them gently for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but have not coloured. Add the tomatoes, fennel seeds, tomato purée, prawn shells and the fish trimmings and bring to a boil then add the parsley, thyme and bay leaves. Cook for 1 minute then add the orange and lemon zest, fish stock and water along with the saffron. Return to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook, gently (uncovered) for about 40 minutes, removing any froth from the surface as it rises.

Continue cooking until the stock has reduced to about 1.7l then remove from the heat and strain into a clean pan. Add the Pernod and adjust the seasonings. Return to a simmer, add the fish and the mussels then return to a simmer before adding the prawns. Cook for a further 2 minutes, or until the mussels have opened and the prawns have turned pink.

Remove any mussels that haven't opened and discard. Ladle the soup into a warmed tureen and serve.

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