Bouillabaisse (Mediterranean Seafood Soup) | JC100 – Week 10

Well let me start this post off with explaining why this recipe is a bit late…. Saskatchewan was slammed with a heat and humidity wave all of last week and the last place I wanted to be was inside, let alone my kitchen (my house was 27°C in the evening…. I don’t even want to know what the humidity levels were inside) and to start boiling a hot pot of soup….Nope – no thanks! Originally, I was hoping to do some walleye fishing and use some local fish, but then got rained out on that plan. Because of the rain, I headed to the grocery store to buy some seafood and was happy that I found some mussels. To continue the adventure, when I got home I opened the package and was hit with the nasty smell of seafood gone bad – wowza, talk about an awful smell. Note to others: if the mussels are even SLIGHTLY open, they have spoiled! So much for mussels in the soup. I was a bit sad too because I knew their beautiful shells would add an extra dimension to the plating. But in good news, the heat cooled off thanks to buckets of rain and I was able to make the soup. So now that it’s here, let’s get to this recipe…

Ingredients

• 1 cup minced onions
• 3/4 cup of minced leek (or 1/2 cup more onions)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves mashed garlic
• 1 lb of ripe, red tomatoes roughly chopped, or 1 1/2 cups drained canted tomatoes, or 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 10 cups water
• 6 parsley springs
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp thyme or basil
• 1/2 tsp fennel
• 2 big pinches of saffron
• A 2-inch piece or 1/2 tsp dried orange peel
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp salt (none if clam juice is used)
• 3 to 4 pounds fish heads, bones and trimmings, or 4 cups clam juice, 6 cups, and no salt
• 6 to 8 pounds assorted lean fish, and shellfish if you wish

 

To prepare the fish for cooking, have them cleaned and scaled. Discard the gills. Save heads and trimmings for fish stock. Cut large fish into crosswise slices 2 inches wide. Scrub clams. Scrub and soak the mussels. Wash scallops. If using live crab or lobster, split them just before cooking. remove the sand sack and intestinal tube from lobsters.

You can also make a simple Rouille which adds a bit of heat and an extra layer of flavour to the soup. It’s also super easy to whip up if you have a food processor (if not, you can just mash it by hand).

• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 small chilli pepper, seeded
• 1 medium peeled potato (cooked in the bouillabaisse)
• 4 cloves mashed garlic
• 1 tsp. basil or thyme
• 4 Tbsp. fruity olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Start by boiling your red pepper and chilli until both are soft. Once they’ve had a chance to boil for roughly 15 minutes, put the pepper, chilli, boiled potato, garlic, basil or thyme, olive oil and the salt and pepper into a food processor and whip together until smooth. This should be served in a tureen and added to the soup right before eating.

Pair your Bouillabaisse and Rouille with some toasted French Bread (drizzle with olive oil for some extra flare) and a rose wine. Hope you enjoy this simple seafood soup – another fabulous recipe from Julia Child.

Carlene