Provencal Fish Stew

Fall is here and it's time to enjoy warm comfort soups. I decided to make a simplified version of the French fisherman's soup: Bouillabaisse. It's nice to take a look at Julia Child's video. Check out her enormous cleavers.

I tried a simple version of Boilliabaisse from Ina Garten's cookbook, Make it Ahead - Provencal Fish Stew with Siracha Rouille. You can make the fish stock, the base of the soup and the rouille earlier in the day and when guests come, you can add the seafood.

Make the Fish Stock 
duration: half an hour
I used an enormous fish head for my fish stock. (It cost me $5 for this 1.5 pound fish head)
You can add fish bones as well. The more the merrier.

1/2 pounds fish bones and heads
2 cups dry white wine
4 cups water
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped and peeled carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of thyme
3 sprigs parsley

1/ Get your fishmonger to remove the gills for you. Clean the head of any blood.
2/ Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to boil and turn heat to medium low. Simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the stock and set aside for next stage

Make the base of the Fish Stew (adapted from Ina Garten's Make it Ahead) 
duration: one and a half hour

6 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 cups chopped onion
1.5 cups (3/4 inch diced) Yellow Bell Pepper
2.5 cups (3/4 inch diced) fennel bulb
1 tsp saffron threads
pinch of red pepper flakes
4 oil packed anchovies, drained and minced
1/4 cup minced garlic
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups seafood stock (see above)
1 can (28 ounce) diced tomatoes
1 strip of orange zest
3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1.5 pounds fresh fish
36 fresh mussels debearded
prawns and squid

1/ Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat
2/ Add onions, bell pepper, fennel, saffron and red pepper flakes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring  occasionally until vegetables are tender.
3/ Add the anchovies and garlic, cook for one minute. Add the wine, bring to boil and cook for 2 minutes
4/ Add the seafood stock, tomatoes, orange zest, orange juice, 1 Tbsp salt and 1.5 tsp black pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.

(At this point, if you are preparing this for a dinner party, you can store the soup and take it out later when friends arrive)

Make the Sriracha Rouille (adapted from Ina Garten's Make it Ahead)
Duration 10 minutes
This garlicky mayonnaise goes so well with the fish stew. Serve it on toast or spoon it directly into the soup

3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp saffron threads
2 large egg yolks (room temperature)
1.5 Tbsp lemon juice (room temperature)
1 tsp Sriracha chilli
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/ Puree the garlic, salt and saffron in a food processor
2/ Add egg yolk, lemon juice and Sriracha and blend for 5 seconds
3/ With machine running, pour olive oil in a thin steady stream.

This recipe is easy to prepare when you have a blender. The texture of the rouille was thick like butter. You can make this ahead an put it in fridge.

Prepare seafood and cook in Soup 
Duration 20 minutes

Mussels:
This was the first time I cooked mussels. The important thing was to keep it alive. As soon as I brought them back from the supermarket, I placed them in a colander filled with ice cubes. Placed the colander on top of a shallow plate (to collect any water) and placed it in the fridge. When ready to cook, clean mussels, de-beard them and chuck the dead ones.

Prawns:
Peel and de-vein prawns

Squid:
Get your fishmonger to remove the hard bits of the squid. Cut into slices

Fish:
I bought different types of fish. Catfish and halibut

1/ Reheat the soup base
2/ Cook the fish in the broth first. Be careful not to overcook.
3/ Add squid and prawns and mussels
4/ Serve immediately!