Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse


Bouillabaisse is a Mediterranean dish which makes the best possible use of a wide selection of fresh seafood, and we love it at Oscars. Bouillabaisse is kind of a soup and stew hybrid which takes full advantage of a days catch like no other one pot dish can. This is a meal, which when made well and with the best possible ingredients is pure bliss on a warm spring evening. Additionally this dish is rarely made for less than ten persons in one serving making it a great idea for a late together.
Marseilles is the city which is most associated with bouillabaisse with the dish being regarded as a traditional fisherman’s meal. Fish is cooked in two ways in a bouillabaisse with some fish being cooked to the point of disintegration in order to make the sauce, these are normally smaller fish. The larger fish are more lightly cooked in the broth and commonly served separately. What distinguishes this stew is the selection n of herbs and spices used in flavouring the broth which is always parsley, and saffron the broth being made of onion, garlic and tomato. To serve a bouillabaisse in the traditional manner a rouille is required which is a garlic olive oil mayonnaise type sauce with a little saffron. The rouille is spread over thick fresh slices of bread and placed into serving bowls. The bouillabaisse is then poured over the bread and rouille at the table.

For this recipe I’ll give the basics of the dish but feel free to experiment with different fish. Conger eel is very traditional as is sea bass, monkfish, weever fish, octopus and gurnard.
• 1 kg potatoes
• ½ garlic
• 2 large onions
• 6 ripe tomatoes
• 200 ml of olive oil
• Bunch of fresh parsley and a little thyme
• 30 gram fennel
• 9 strands of saffron
• 10 slices of good sour dough bread
The Rouille
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of olive oil
• 10 pistils of saffron
• salt and Cayenne pepper
1. Cut fish into large slices, leaving the bones.
2. Put the olive oil in a large casserole. Add the onions cleaned and sliced and garlic crushed; add tomatoes peeled and quartered, without seeds, brown at low heat.
3. Add the sliced fish, beginning with the thickest to the smallest. Cover with boiling water, and add the salt and the pepper, the fennel, the herbs and saffron. Simmer at a low heat, stirring from time to time so the fish doesn't stick to the casserole. Correct the seasoning. The bouillabaisse is cooked when the juice of the cooking is well blended with the oil and the water which takes around 25 minutes
4. Prepare the rouille: Remove the stem of the garlic, crush the cloves into a fine paste with a pestle in a mortar. Add the egg yolk and the saffron; blend in the olive oil little by little to make a mayonnaise, stirring it with the pestle.
5. Cook the potatoes, peeled and boiled and cut into large slices
6. Arrange the fish on a dish. Serve the sauce very hot with the rouille in bowls over thick slices of bread rubbed with garlic. Then serve the fish and the potatoes on a separate platter