Fish Stock For Bouillabaisse Recipes

FISH STOCK FOR BOUILLABAISSE

Steps:

• Place a large heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium heat, and heat olive oil. Add onions and leeks. Sauté gently until softened but not colored, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, and continue to cook until onions and leeks are very soft and breaking apart, another 5 to 10 minutes. Put 4 quarts water in a large pot, and bring to a boil.
• Meanwhile, add fish to onion mixture, raise heat to high, and stir vigorously until pieces begin to fall apart, 7 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, orange peel, celery, thyme, bay leaves, cayenne and pastis. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium, and sauté for 10 minutes.
• Add boiling water; simmer 25 minutes.
• Working in small batches, pass mixture through a food mill or strainer. Press fish scraps and vegetables through with the aid of the fish broth to ease flow. Allow to cool. Store refrigerated or frozen.

BOUILLABAISSE FISH BROTH

Steps:

• Wash the fish bones well in cold, clean water to remove impurities. Split the lobster shells and clean by removing the light green tomalley (liver) in the body cavity and the feathery gills at the head section. Save the peeling from fresh cooked or raw shrimp. Discard the digestive tract, but save the heads if any. In a large stock pot heat olive oil and fish bones, lobster shells and shrimp shells. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes to give broth a rich flavor. Meanwhile, put the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse to finely chop. Add the vegetables to the stock pot and saute them along with the fish bones for 15 minutes to sweat and caramelize the vegetables. Add the tomato, saffron and other herbs and seasonings and continue to saute for 10 minutes. Stir to ensure that nothing burns or sticks to the bottom of the pan. Add the white wine and reduce by half. Add the fish stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook 1 1/2 hours. Skim a foamy particles that rise to the surface during cooking. Drain through cheesecloth lined sieve and cool in an ice bath.

BOUILLABAISSE FISH BROTH

Steps:

• Wash the fish bones well in cold, clean water to remove impurities. Split the lobster shells and clean by removing the light green tomalley (liver) in the body cavity and the feathery gills at the head section. Save the peeling from fresh cooked or raw shrimp. Discard the digestive tract, but save the heads if any. In a large stock pot heat olive oil and fish bones, lobster shells and shrimp shells. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes to give broth a rich flavor. Meanwhile, put the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse to finely chop. Add the vegetables to the stock pot and saute them along with the fish bones for 15 minutes to sweat and caramelize the vegetables. Add the tomato, saffron and other herbs and seasonings and continue to saute for 10 minutes. Stir to ensure that nothing burns or sticks to the bottom of the pan. Add the white wine and reduce by half. Add the fish stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook 1 1/2 hours. Skim a foamy particles that rise to the surface during cooking. Drain through cheesecloth lined sieve and cool in an ice bath.

BOUILLABAISSE

Steps:

• To make the croutons heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Lay the slices of bread on a flat baking tray in a single layer, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 15 mins until golden and crisp. Set aside - can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container.
• Use a layer of the green part of the leek to wrap around and make a herb bundle with the thyme, bay, parsley stalks, orange peel and chilli. Tie everything together with kitchen string and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a very large casserole dish or stock pot and throw in the onion, sliced leek and fennel and cook for about 10 mins until softened. Stir through the garlic and cook for 2 mins more, then add the herb bundle, tomato purée, star anise, Pernod if using, chopped tomatoes and saffron. Simmer and stir for a minute or two then pour over the fish stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer, then add the piece of potato. Bubble everything gently for 30 mins until you have a thin tomatoey soup. When that piece of potato is on the brink of collapse, fish it out and set aside to make the rouille.
• While the broth is simmering make the rouille by crushing the garlic, chilli and saffron with a pinch of salt in a mortar with a pestle. Mash in the cooked potato to make a sticky paste then whisk in the egg yolk and, very gradually, the olive oil until you make a mayonnaise-like sauce. Stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
• Once the chunky tomato broth has cooked you have two options: for a rustic bouillabaisse, simply poach your fish in it along with the mussels, if you're using (just until they open) and serve. For a refined version, remove the herb bundle and star anise. Using a handheld or table-top blender, blitz the soup until smooth. Pass the soup through a sieve into a large, clean pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Starting with the densest fish, add the chunks to the broth and cook for 1 min before adding the next type. With the fish we used, the order was: monkfish, John Dory, grey mullet, snapper. When all the fish is in, scatter over the mussels, if using, and simmer everything for about 5 mins until just cooked and the mussels have opened.
• Use a slotted spoon to carefully scoop the fish and mussels out onto a warmed serving platter, moisten with just a little broth and scatter over the chopped parsley. Bring everything to the table. Some people eat it as two courses, serving the broth with croutons and rouille first, then the fish spooned into the same bowl. Others simply serve it as a fish stew. Whichever way you choose the rouille is there to be stirred into the broth to thicken and give it a kick.