Bouillabaisse

A strained fish broth served separately from the fish, with a garlic and chilli rouille stirred into each bowl.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

For the broth

• 1.5 kg mixed small rockfish and fish bones
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced
• 4 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 head garlic, halved
• a strip of orange peel
• a generous pinch of saffron
• 150 ml olive oil
• 2 litres water

For the fish

• 1.2 kg firm white fish in thick pieces: monkfish, gurnard, conger, John Dory
• 500 g potatoes, in thick rounds

For the rouille

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 red chilli
• 1 egg yolk
• a pinch of saffron
• 150 ml olive oil
• 1 slice bread, soaked and squeezed

To serve

• toasted bread

Method

1. THE BROTH AND THE FISH ARE SERVED SEPARATELY, and that is the shape of the dish. The small bony fish are cooked to pieces and PUSHED THROUGH A SIEVE -- bones and all -- to make the broth, and the good fish is poached in it for eight minutes and lifted onto a platter. Broth in bowls, fish on a dish, rouille and bread on the table.
2. THAT SIEVING IS WHY THIS IS NOT THE GREEK FISH SOUPS ON THIS SITE. Kakavia also sacrifices small fish, but strains them out and keeps a clear broth; psarosoupa poaches one fish and lifts it out whole. Here the rockfish are forced THROUGH the sieve so their flesh goes into the liquid, which is what makes it thick and orange rather than clear.
3. THE ROUILLE IS NOT OPTIONAL AND IT IS NOT A GARNISH. It is an emulsion like the aioli on this site, stirred into each bowl, and it is where the heat and most of the garlic live. Without it this is a thin fish soup.
4. Rouille first: garlic and chilli pounded with salt to a cream, the squeezed bread and saffron worked in, then the yolk, then the oil drop by drop as on the aioli page. Set aside.
5. Broth: oil in a large pot, onions and fennel softened 10 minutes. Tomatoes, garlic, orange peel and saffron in, 5 minutes.
6. Rockfish and bones in, turned through the oil, then the water. Brought to the boil and simmered 40 minutes.
7. PUSHED THROUGH A COARSE SIEVE OR A MOULI, pressing hard so the flesh goes through and only bones and skin are left. Those are discarded.
8. The broth returned to a clean pan, tasted and seasoned hard. It should be strongly flavoured and slightly thick.
9. Potatoes in, simmered 15 minutes until nearly tender.
10. The good fish laid in, thickest pieces first, and poached 8 minutes at a bare simmer. NOT STIRRED -- the pan is shaken if anything.
11. The fish and potatoes lifted carefully onto a warm platter with a slotted spoon.
12. The broth ladled into bowls, the toast and rouille passed round, and each person stirs their own in.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes