Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse is another dish that I first tried at Bistrot Leo in New York, which I thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to recreate. It's a seafood stew that originated from southern France, developed by fishermen who used this dish as a way to consume their leftover fish that wouldn't sell at the market. I didn't quite plate it up correctly so it doesn't look super visually appealing. The process is quite long but the end result is delicious! This dish highlights some of my favorite aspects of French cuisine - it's fresh, herbaceous, and subtly flavorful despite not having particularly intense flavors (without the excessive amounts of cream/butter that most other French recipes call for). This recipe was pulled from Ludo Lefevfre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4jDx6OGrfU&t=53s. Of course, bouillabaisse is not complete without some nice toasted baguette with rouille.
Active Time: 1 hr 40 min
Total Time: 2 hr
Ingredients
For the seafood broth:
> butter (2 tbsp)
> onion (1), carrot (1), celery stalk (1), fennel bulb (1), leek (1), garlic (6 cloves)
> tomato paste (4 oz)
> tomato (1)
> shrimp, scallops, halibut, clams (just a little bit of each)
> thyme (4 sprigs), cayenne, Pernod (1/3 cup), white wine (1 cup)
> saffron (0.2g), water (4 cups)
Bouillabaisse:
> orange zest (1/2), lemon zest (1/2)
> shrimp, scallops, halibut, clams
> salt, pepper
> parsley, olive oil
Rouille:
> breadcrumbs (3/4 cup, ideally from the center of a baguette)
> water (3 tbsp)
> garlic (3 cloves)
> sea salt
> cayenne
> olive oil (3 tbsp)
Instructions
Prepare the seafood broth:
1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter and cook onion, carrot, celery stalk, fennel bulb, leek, and garlic for around 10 minutes, or until softened and translucent but not browned.
2. Add tomato paste. Stir and cook for another 3-4 minutes or so.
3. Add tomato, shrimp, halibut, scallops (chopped into small pieces), and clams. Stir to combine.
4. Add thyme and cayenne. Deglaze with Pernod. Add white wine, stir in saffron, and bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.
5. Transfer seafood broth to a blender (work in batches if necessary). Thoroughly blend until smooth.
6. Pour seafood broth through a fine wire-mesh strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
Making the bouillabaisse:
7. Combine seafood broth, orange zest, and lemon zest. Bring up to a light simmer.
8. Poach seafood, larger items first to ensure everything cooks through at the same time. Alternatively, I prefer to poach just the shrimp and clams, and sear the scallops and halibut.
9. Remove from heat, season with salt to taste. Divide bouillabaisse among serving bowls, garnish with parsley and olive oil. Serve with toasted baguette slices and rouille.
Making the Rouille: (ideally you'd do this before the bouillabaisse itself)
10. Pour water over breadcrumbs, and mix together until the water is completely soaked up.
11. In a mortar and pestle (if you have one, otherwise just mix in a bowl), mash garlic to a paste with sea salt and cayenne. Mix the breadcrumbs in and continue to mash into a paste.
12. Slowly add in olive oil, mixing and mashing as you go.
13. Toast baguette slices, and smear the rouille over the top. Serve with bouillabaisse.
Notes/Tips:
> This recipe creates the seafood broth in a somewhat unconventional way: by using seafood that's typically consumed. If you have access to fish bones, that would probably be more economical as well as impart more flavor.
> Feel free to use whatever seafood you have access to, with the exception that you should avoid fish with red flesh (like salmon or trout). Otherwise, be creative and use whatever you like! The first time I tried making this though, I used monkfish tails which really didn't work (it had a texture similar to catfish and lacked the tenderness that this dish demands).
> Traditionally, all the seafood is poached, carefully timing when all the items go in to ensure each item is perfectly cooked. I prefer to sear the scallops and halibut, which gives a nice texture and more flavor.
> There are a lot of different recipes for rouille out there and I don't really know what's technically "traditional". My method thickens up the sauce using breadcrumbs, but a lot of recipes I've seen also make a mayonnaise-like substance using egg. Either technique is probably fine as long as you get the zing from the garlic and the light spiciness from the cayenne. I've also seen some recipes call for saffron, which seems delicious but makes for a bit too one-dimensional of a dish combined with the bouillabaisse. Mixing together multiple techniques (e.g. going the breadcrumbs route but also mixing in some mayonnaise) also works.
> This dish is definitely best served in wide-rimmed bowls - place the poached fish on the bowl and pour over the broth tableside, and line the rim with a few slices of toasted baguette with rouille. I unfortunately don't have these resources but it would certainly make a showstopper.
> When I make this, I make a couple of miscellaneous substitutions. The recipe calls for piment d'Espelette, but I don't have that so just used cayenne instead. Pernod is an liqueur with an anise flavor, but I don't have that either, so I just added a bit more fennel and white wine to compensate.