This is quite an undertaking but it is worth the effort. It is originally south of France dish made out of a whole bunch of “extra” fish from the day’s catch. However, it has evolved over the years as a very sophisticated dish and many recipes can be found on the internet with everyone claiming to be the original.
Mine is not the original…it is my version or more accurately a patchwork of things I found on the internet…
It is a fish stew but it is “assembled” at the end so that all the fish and shellfish are cooked just right.
You will cook most of the fish in one pot but keep the cooked fish separate until the assembly of the dish at the end.
Ingredients :
- Fish: Monk Fish, Cod, Red Snapper, Seam Bream
- Shellfish: Mussels (pre-cooked as bland as possible) / Tiger prawns / Octopus (very small quantity) / Squid
- 8 Carrots / 1 Fennel / 2 Onions / 3 Leeks / Small potatoes
- 1 tin/dollop of Tomato concentrate and a can of chopped tomatoes.
- 3 cloves of Garlic / A little Curly Parsley for garnishing
- SAFFRON / bouquet garni / Salt / Pepper / Olive oil for cooking / butter
- White wine to deglaze / Pernod (optional for extra anis taste)
- Rouille (spicy mayonnaise) / Bread Toasts
How to make :
- First, boil the peeled potatoes in salty water with a little bit of Saffron to give the potatoes some colour. Once cooked, keep potatoes in a separate bowl and keep the water of cooking as it will be part of the broth later. Better to under-cook a little here, as we will warm them later and finish the cooking then.
- Chop the onions and garlic, cook in the dutch oven with a fair bit of olive oil and a dollop of butter. Give a bit of colour but not dark.
- Chop carrots / Fennel / Leaks but keep some pieces for steaming separately. Try to ensure that all plates will get a couple of pieces of carrot and a couple of pieces of the leak.
- Steam the reserved vegetables and keep in a separate bowl until assembly at the end.
- Put carrots and leeks and fennel in the dush oven with the onions etc…and stir over strong heat. Let some colour develop and olive oil coating the vegetables. Add pepper and a very little salt. (salt will come with the fishes as they cook later so do not over salt here)
- Add the Tomatoes concentrate and the can of tomatoes and deglaze with the white wine. Keep stirring over strong heat.
- Add the reserved broth from the cooking of the potatoes.
- Add some Saffron to the soup. Keep the heat going.
- Chop the heads off the tiger prawns and put the HEADS in the soup. (THe true recipe would have also all the other parts of the fishes and in some recipes, the fishes are cooked “whole” in the soup. I prefer to use filets and skinned fish. The prawns are perfect to give the extra fish taste and make the blending a lot easier.
- You should now have a large casserole of boiling soup in which you are going to cook/poach the fishes.
- I make 5 to 7cm pieces of monkfish and cod. I keep the sea bream and the red snapper in filets.
- Cook, in the same way, the tiger prawn tails. Keep all of the fishes and tails in a large ovenproof container until final assembly.
- Now remove the bouquet garni from the soup but leave the tiger prawn heads and blend everything to a very fine creamy soup.
- I cook the Octopus and Squid in olive oil with a few spices/herbs de Provence in a frying pan.
- I re-heat the mussels in a saucepan with a lid. (mini steaming)
- Cut some large pieces of bread and toast.
- Re-heat the fish / Potatoes / Carrots / Leeks either with a steamer or in the oven covered with aluminium.
- Once everything is hot you can assemble back into a plate.
- Pour the blended soup over all of the fish pieces and mussels etc…. garnish with the Bread toast with a good dollop of rouille and some curly parsley.
A true effort but all worth it at the end…..make large quantities so you can have leftovers because you will want to eat some again tomorrow…
