How to Cook Bouillabaisse

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients needed to make Bouillabaisse:

• 4 tiger prawns, shelled, deveined and roughly chopped
• 14 oz boneless and skinless haddock fillet, diced
• 2 lb clams, scrubbed
• 1 lb mussels, scrubbed
• 4 baby squid, rinsed and sliced into triangles
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 14 oz tinned tomatoes
• 2 fl oz star anise flavored liqueur
• 18 fl oz fish stock
• 4 fl oz white wine
• ½ tsp saffron strands, immersed in a tbsp of hot water
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cooking instructions for Bouillabaisse:

• Drizzle 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan and heat it over moderate flame.
• Throw in the garlic as well as onions and saute for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until they soften.
• Stir in the cayenne pepper, as well as the fennel seeds and continue to stir fry for 1 minute before stirring in half of the haddock chunks and the prawns.
• Pour in the soaked saffron and saute for a couple of minutes.
• Add a splash of the liqueur and flambe before pouring in the white wine.
• Give it a nice stir and continue to cook the stew until it reduces to half its previous volume.
• Empty the can of tomatoes into the pan and stir in the fish stock.
• Bring the stew to a boil and then simmer for about 8 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and turns flaky on touch.
• Tip the contents of the pan into a blender and pulse them into a smooth puree.
• Pass it through a fine sieve to strain and return the strained puree into the frying pan.
• Heat the mixture again until it simmers and stir in rest of the haddock chunks, clams and mussels.
• Cook until the fish is cooked through and the shells snaps open; adjust the seasonings.
• Heat a griddle pan over high heat until it sears and toss the squid with rest of the olive oil, in the meantime.
• Add the squid to the hot griddle and cook for half a minute, per side, until it is seared and just cooked.
• Remove from heat and toss well with a dash of seasonings to taste.
• Ladle the fish stew into soup plates and add the seared squid on top of each serving.
• Serve hot with a toast by its side.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Last Updated on January 8, 2013 by