making it for the second time. Last time was a decade ago. Riffing off Julia’s recipe and a NYT version. Likely sea bass, rockfish, maybe halibut, shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops. Not classic, I know but that’s what I have available. Any advice in advance?
What, is C Fu not importing Rascasse yet?
To make a broth, it’s not always easy to find good trimmings from marine fish (avoid salmon or other oily fish), so I add a can of this broth, much less costly than the little bottles of clam juice. I also add the shrimp/lobster/crab shells when preparing the broth, and strain when ready to add other seafood.
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High quality pink shrimp shells, crab shells, and white fish trimmings to make a sweet and rich stock. Make the stock outstanding on its own and the rest is gravy.
excellent point and don’t forget the rouille
You can’t make the bouillabaisse without the rascasse! You can’t do it!
yeah—find it for me in the US—not available.
lol yeah I know just needling you. I have made it a few times with similar ingredients to what you are looking at and after all the legwork with the ingredients and the cost, I just don’t bother anymore.
came out great though a bit more consommé in the liquid texture than I like. Also did the Tetou variation of cooking slices of potatoes in the broth and serving them separately. If I had left the taters in the broth longer (before the seafood), might have given more body to the liquid. Coarsely strained it and then reduced prior to adding seafood.
Made the broth by first sautéing diced fennel, carrots, celery, onion, leeks, shallots, garlic, and then adding fennel fronds, tarragon, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, cayenne, and salt to water, tomato paste, tomato chunks, shrimp shells, and clam juice. Then saffron. Boiled and then simmered—which is what the word bouillabaisse means.
Used halibut, sea bass, sablefish, shrimp, PEI mussels, Manila clams, in that order to avoid overcooking bivalves.
It was delicious. Might use more tarragon and fennel next time and add some Pastis or Pernod to get more « fennelly » taste.
Edited often since I kept remembering ingredients.
the difference between bouillabaisse and Italian cioppino—the latter has more tomato and doesn’t use the saffron that the French version does. Other than that—pretty similar.
Isn’t red mullet (Rouget) one of the core fish? Langoustes better than North American “shrimp”. No salmon.
And of course the broth is key. Lots of good advice here. Toast some fennel seeds as well as fennel bulb. Dash of Pernod? Not sure if it’s classic but I think it helps. And anything to concentrate the umami from the tomatoes, eg passing the pulp and seeds through a serve to get the juice to add to the chopped flesh. And strong rouille.
Damn, now I’m hungry.
haven’t seen rouget around here. Did add fennel seeds (forgot to list) but not toasted—good idea. Agree to avoid salmon—too oily.
I know where you can get it. The Marine Aquarium in Norwalk has a few! Trade them COVID vaccine for fish. DB says that they really need the vaccine in Connecticut.