French Bouillabaisse

 

This recipe, typical of the French city of Marseille, is a close relative of other fish and shellfish stews found throughout the Mediterranean basin. Strictly speaking, bouillabaisse would be a soup but it is also common to serve the fish and shellfish used to make the soup, which would be related to recipes such as Caldeirada. 

There are many recipes for bouillabaisse, but the orthodox indicates that you must have at least four species of fish and shellfish from those listed below to be considered as such, namely: monkfish, conger, Saint Peter fish,  lobster, Norway lobster, mullet or scorpion fish.

Bouillabaisse does not detract from our Christmas meals, as it is in fact considered a delicacy. It can be used both as a starter and as a main course.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 1.5 Kg (3.3 pounds) of fish varied according to the above ratio (conger, eel, mullet, Saint Peter fish and monkfish, for example, anyway choose the fish available in your area but not the blue type, always white)
• A small lobster
• 3 ripe red tomatoes
• 1 red or sweet onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 small leek
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• Bread
• A little saffron
• Salt
• Pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

We wash the fish well. We cut the lobster into four parts, including the head.

In a large casserole, add a very generous squirt of olive oil. Grate the onion and cook it. When it is transparent add two cloves of garlic, very finely chopped, as well as the leek and parsley.

Then add the finely chopped tomatoes without skin or seeds and the bay leaf. When the sauce takes body and is somewhat "dry" we add the fish in order of hardness. First the lobster and then successively from hardest to softest. When a kind of "paste" is formed, we add a liter of water (5 cups) -or enough to completely cover the fish- which we have boiled in a separate container.

When the water boils add the saffron and salt and pepper. We leave over high heat for 15 minutes. At that time we remove the fish.

We continue to boil the broth so that it thickens more (5 minutes will be enough). We strain it so that there are no thorns and we take it to a tureen where there will be two slices of bread smeared with a clove of garlic.

There are two options here: serve the soup first and then the fish or as usual in recent times, serve the "higher level" fish such as monkfish and lobster in the deep plate, discarding the lower level.

If the fish is eaten separately, as is still commonly done in Marseille, it is usually served with aioli or rouillé sauce, which is a mayonnaise with chilli and crushed garlic.

Other additions, such as including mussels, clams, prawns etc are more recent variants that do not appear in the original recipe, made with the fish that remained at the bottom of the fishermen's baskets and that therefore nobody wanted. Hence the name of the soup, which would mean "boil the fish from below" (bull - boil - abaisse - below).