You'll be saying booya to all the baes if you can nail this one
A proper Marseille-style fish stew: a deep saffron broth built from fish bones, then a parade of seafood added in strict order. Make the broth and rouille ahead and the final cook takes about 15 minutes. Make friends with your fishmonger; they'll do the scaling and filleting for you.
The challenge
- Sourcing multiple fish varieties
- Timing each seafood separately
- Balancing saffron intensity
- Rouille emulsion without breaking
At least four types of fresh fish and shellfish go into this Provençal stew, each requiring different cooking times that you'll somehow need to coordinate perfectly. Saffron costs more per ounce than most of the fish: use too much and it tastes medicinal, too little and you've made expensive yellow water.
Traditional service means straining everything, presenting the broth with croutons and rouille separately from a platter of cooked fish, because apparently one pot wasn't fancy enough.
Prep: 1 hour 15 minutes Β Β·Β Cook: 1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients
For the broth
- 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) white fish bones and heads (gills removed), rinsed
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, 1 leek and 1 fennel bulb, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 400 g (14 oz) ripe tomatoes, chopped, plus 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 strip orange peel, 2 bay leaves and a few thyme sprigs
- 1 generous pinch (about 1/4 tsp) saffron threads
- 2 tbsp pastis (optional) and 2 litres (8 cups) water
For the seafood
- 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) mixed firm fish fillets, skin on (choose 3-4 of gurnard, monkfish, John Dory, red mullet, sea bass), cut into large chunks
- 500 g (1.1 lb) mussels, cleaned
- 6 large raw shell-on prawns (shrimp)
- 500 g (1.1 lb) waxy potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 cm (1/2 in) thick
For the rouille and croutons
- 1 egg yolk, 2 garlic cloves and a pinch of saffron soaked in 1 tbsp hot broth
- 1 small boiled potato (about 80 g / 3 oz), mashed, and a pinch of cayenne
- 200 ml (3/4 cup) olive oil
- 1 baguette, sliced and toasted
Method
- Sweat the aromaticsHeat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, leek, fennel and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until soft but not browned. Stir in the tomato paste and chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
- Build the brothAdd the fish bones and heads and stir for 5 minutes until they turn opaque. Add the orange peel, herbs, pastis and water. Bring to a boil, skim, then simmer briskly for 40 minutes.
- Strain hardPass everything through a food mill or press it firmly through a sieve, squeezing out every drop of flavour. You want about 1.5 litres (6 cups) of rich, slightly thick broth. Return to a clean pot and season with salt.
- Add saffron carefullyCrumble in the saffron and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste: it should be golden and floral, with saffron in the background. Add a few more threads only if it tastes flat. Too much tastes bitter and medicinal.
- Make the rouilleMash the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt. Whisk in the egg yolk, soaked saffron, mashed potato and cayenne. Add the oil a few drops at a time, whisking constantly, then in a thin stream once it thickens like mayonnaise. If it splits, whisk a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and slowly beat the split mixture into it.
- Cook the potatoesAdd the potato slices to the simmering broth and cook for 12-15 minutes until just tender.
- Seafood in stagesKeep the broth at a strong simmer. Add the firmest fish first (monkfish, gurnard) and cook for 3 minutes. Add the medium fish (sea bass, John Dory) for 2 minutes. Then add the delicate fish (red mullet), prawns and mussels, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes until the mussels open and the prawns turn pink. Discard any mussels that stay closed.
- Serve the traditional wayLift the fish, shellfish and potatoes onto a warm platter with a slotted spoon. Ladle the broth into warm bowls. Let everyone spread rouille on croutons, float them in the broth, then add fish from the platter.
- Booyah the baesServe the broth first, then the fish, Marseille style, with rouille on toasts. Look up at your guests with total confidence and say "booya." They will either laugh or be very impressed. Both are good outcomes.
Tips from the trenches
- Ask the fishmonger for bones and heads from white fish only; oily fish like salmon make the broth taste muddy.
- Lay out the seafood on trays grouped by cooking time so you can add each batch without thinking.
- Saffron is strong: start with less, simmer for 5 minutes, then taste before adding more.
- Have every rouille ingredient at room temperature; cold yolks are the main reason emulsions break.
βBouillabaisse is only good because cooked by the French, who could produce a nutritious substitute out of cigar stumps and empty matchboxes.ββ Norman Douglas
