Bouillabaisse is a seafood stew from the central area of Provence, Marseille and its surroundings. It was originally a stew prepared by fishermen with the product they could not sell, so it is common to use a variety of rock fish and even whitebait; It is also not unusual to find these horticultural-based stews and chunks of fish throughout the Mediterranean, original dishes that were made with the product that was most at hand.
Like all dishes of popular origin -there are also who affirms that these seafood stews were already prepared by the Greeks and Romans, as is natural in these cases-, there are various versions that claim to be the authentic and genuine. Very popular dish in the restaurants of the old port of Marseille, in 1980 a group of 16 restaurants in the city decided to establish some Statutes of the Bouillabaisse to put a little order in the versions that, always according to them, did not respect the traditional recipe. These statutes provide the following guidelines: broth and fish are served separately; the indispensable fish are the red lionfish (Pterois volitans), spider fish (Trachinus araneus), the conger eel (conger conger) and the frogfish (uranoscopus scaber); the complementary ingredients are salt, pepper, fennel, saffron, parsley, olive oil, potatoes, garlic and tomatoes and it should be served with sauce rouille spread on croutons or slices of toast, rubbed with garlic.
Whoever has access to all these Mediterranean fish will get these serious Marseille gentlemen to approve of their bouillabaisse. Those of us who don’t live on the shores of the Mediterranean will make do with what we can, and don’t even think of telling a Marseillais that bouillabaisse is a fish and shellfish soup; he will tell you, looking over his shoulder, that this seafood stew served in two turns has nothing to do with ordinary fish soup.
As you can see, the genuine bouillabaisse does not contain shellfish out of obligation, although we are not going to be disgusted by some clams or mussels either. As for flavourings, we talked about fennel and its anise-flavored seeds recently in this article. The quantities of saffron are usually generous, which makes me wonder if, despite the fact that the saffron bulb is grown in Provence, it was always an accessible spice for humble fishermen or the intense saffron thing is a relatively modern thing. Some peoplewisely ends the stew by adding a small glass of pastis, an anise liqueur also typical of Marseille.
As for the sauce rouille, ubiquitous in Provence, there are also various versions, but one of the most common seems to be a mayonnaise with garlic, saffron or chili pepper. By the way, rouille means rust, a name it owes to its color. And let us know that the sauce rouille It should be fierce, quite spicy (although this can be adjusted by each one to their liking when preparing it).
If you don’t want to serve the fish and the broth separately, as if it were overturning a stew, but all together in a beastly fish stew as we have done for the photo, and you also put some shellfish on the bouillabaisse, you won’t The natives will fail to lock you up in the castle of If, like the Count of Monte Cristo, depending on how you set foot in Marseilles: he who warns is not a traitor.
Difficulty
The one of finding good fish, not mistreating it and getting it right with the seasoning.
Ingredients
For 6 servings
Bouillabaisse
- 2 kg of mixed fish, gutted and cleaned
- 1 orange peel (without the white part)
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 good pinches of saffron
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 3 onions
- 4 tomatoes (or 2-3 tbsp tomato puree)
- 6 medium potatoes
- 150ml olive oil
- 1 tsp. of fennel seeds
- A good handful of fresh clams or mussels
- parsley to taste
- Salt and pepper
rouille sauce
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 cayenne pepper or a piece of chilli pepper
- 2 yolks
- 1 good pinch of saffron
- 250 ml light olive oil
- Salt
Accompaniment
- toasted bread slices
- Garlic to rub the bread
- A dash of olive oil
Preparation
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Cut the larger fish into pieces. Place all the fish in a bowl, moisten with four tablespoons of oil and add two pinches of saffron, an orange peel and the bay leaves. Mix carefully, cover with plastic and leave to marinate for an hour in the fridge.
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Peel and chop the onions and garlic cloves. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds, and peel and de-seed them, or use prepared tomato puree. Peel the potatoes and cut them into more or less thick slices.
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Put the rest of the olive oil in a saucepan. Saute onion until translucent; add the garlic and give it a few turns.
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Add the tomato pulp and fennel seeds and reduce for five minutes, or the tomato purée without further reduction. Pour a liter and a half of water, bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Cook 15 minutes over low heat.
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Add the larger fish to the bed of potatoes, so they don’t fall apart, and count five minutes when the broth boils again. Then add the small fish and molluscs, if we put them, together with the liquid and the aromas of the marinade.
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Cover the pan, cook for a few minutes until the molluscs open and the small fish are cooked, turn off the heat and season to taste.
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Peel and chop the garlic for the rouille sauce, and crumble the cayenne or chilli. Separate the yolks and put them in a tall blender glass. Add the chopped garlic, cayenne or chilli pepper, a good pinch of saffron and a teaspoon of salt.
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Cover with the olive oil and insert the hand blender all the way down. Start it at medium speed and, when you can clearly see that the mayonnaise is forming at the bottom of the glass, raise the mixer arm little by little, integrating the oil that remains on top, until we have rouille in the entire glass. Taste the seasoning and rectify, if necessary. Reserve.
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To serve, rub garlic on toasted bread slices and drizzle with olive oil. Spread each slice with rouille sauce. Remove the fish to a bowl and serve with the fish broth and potatoes in a casserole, all accompanied by the bread with rouilleand serve.
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