Gilbert Le Coze's Bouillabaisse
- Total Time
- About 4 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 5pounds scraps and bones from white-fleshed fish, such as halibut, red snapper, cod, monkfish
- 1small conger eel, skinned and filleted, with bones reserved (see note)
- 2 to 3medium sea robins, skinned and filleted with bones reserved (see note)
- 2medium-to-large blue crabs, chopped
- ½cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½cup thinly sliced fennel
- 2leeks, white part only, thinly sliced
- 1large onion, thinly sliced
- 3shallots, finely chopped
- 1whole head garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1cup dry white wine
- 1bouquet garni (bay leaf, parsley and thyme tied in cheesecloth)
- 3quarts water
- 3ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 3tablespoons tomato paste
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- Kosher salt
- Large pinch of saffron
- 7cups fish soup
- 4medium-to-large new red potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and sliced ¼-inch thick
- 12small mussels, scrubbed and debearded
- 12Little Neck clams, scrubbed
- 4large sea scallops, cut in half horizontally
- 110-to-12-ounce red snapper, filleted and cut into four pieces
- 10 to 12ounces monkfish, cut into medallions
- Rouille (see recipe)
- 8rounds of french bread, toasted and rubbed with garlic and olive oil
The Fish Soup
The Fish Stew
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Preparation
- Step 1
To make the fish soup, place all the fish bones and scraps, along with the crabs, in a large piece of cheesecloth and tie securely.
- Step 2
Heat the oil in a 10- to 12-quart pot. Add the fennel, leeks, onion, shallots and garlic along with the eel and sea robin fillets and cook slowly, until the vegetables are tender. Add the wine. Place the bag of fish bones and the bouquet garni in the pot and add the tomatoes, tomato paste and water to completely cover the fish bones.
- Step 3
Season lightly with cayenne pepper and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook very slowly for two and a half hours.
- Step 4
Remove the bag of fish bones and the bouquet garni and drain well. Pass the soup mixture through a food mill, add the saffron, place in a large saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes to reduce it further. Adjust the seasonings. Strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth. There should be between two and a half and three quarts. This soup can be prepared in advance and frozen.
- Step 5
To make the stew, heat two cups of the fish soup in a saucepan and cook the potatoes in it until they are tender. Drain the potatoes and wrap in foil to keep warm.
- Step 6
Transfer the fish soup used for the potatoes to a three-quart saucepan and place the mussels and clams in it. Steam the mussels and clams, covered, until they just open. Remove from the heat and keep covered.
- Step 7
Place the remaining fish soup in a saucepan just large enough to hold all the rest of the seafood. Heat to just barely simmering, add the remaining seafood and cook until just done, removing each type of seafood to a warm dish as it is cooked.
- Step 8
To serve the bouillabaisse, divide the potato rounds among four shallow, warmed soup plates. Arrange the cooked fish over the potatoes, then divide the mussels and clams, with the top shells removed, among the four plates.
- Step 9
Stir some of the soup used to poach the seafood into the rouille, then wisk the rouille back into the soup. Bring to barely simmering, then pour over the seafood in the plates and serve with croutons.
- If conger eel and sea robin are unavailable, substitute one pound of monkfish fillets and two or three fish heads to the bag of fish scraps.
Private Notes
Comments
I almost stopped reading at 1 small conger eel and 2 to 3 medium sea robins, all skinned and filleted with bones reserved, but I kept on, and it only got worse...
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