Best Mark Bittmans Bouillabaisse Recipes
MARK BITTMAN'S BOUILLABAISSE
You can make any soup with water instead of stock, but the soups that drive you wild usually have a beautiful stock as their base. This is doubly true of bouillabaisse, which should start with a stock so delicious that you can barely imagine improving on it. There are a few ways to do this: Grab fish bones when you see them, and make the stock incrementally. Another is to use shrimp shells. A third is to accumulate lobster bodies, which make fantastic stock. In any case, you combine whatever you have with some aromatics (thyme branches, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, peppercorns) add water and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes. Cool, strain and freeze if you like. When you're ready to make the soup, procure your seafood - pretty much any combination of fish and shellfish will do, but avoid dark-fleshed fish - and go forth. From there, it's no more difficult than making a pot of vegetable soup.
Provided by Mark Bittman
Categories dinner, soups and stews, main course
Time 1h
Yield 4 to 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 20
Steps:
- Heat oven to 400 degrees; brush bread liberally with olive oil, and bake on a sheet, turning once, until golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Add enough olive oil to a Dutch oven, deep skillet or shallow pot to make a thick layer (don't skimp) on the bottom. In it, cook onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, fennel and saffron until glossy. Add stock and tomato and bring to a moderate boil; cook until thick and stewy rather than soupy. Season to taste; it should be so delicious that you don't even care whether you add fish.
- Lower heat to a simmer, and, as you add fish, adjust heat so that the liquid continues to bubble gently. Add fish in order of how long they will take to cook. Monkfish, striped bass and squid are fish that might require more than a few minutes, so add them first. About five minutes later add clams and mussels, holding back any fish that has been cooked or will cook in a flash. When mollusks open, add remaining fish. Cut scallops into quarters and place in the bottom of 4 bowls.
- Add pastis if you're using it; taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle hot soup and fish over the scallops, distributing clams and mussels evenly. Garnish and serve with croutons and rouille, if you're using.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 325, UnsaturatedFat 7 grams, Carbohydrate 27 grams, Fat 10 grams, Fiber 4 grams, Protein 33 grams, SaturatedFat 2 grams, Sodium 1002 milligrams, Sugar 6 grams, TransFat 0 grams
BOUILLABAISSE WITH ORANGE ZEST, FENNEL AND SAFFRON
This Mediterranean fish stew is more difficult to spell than to prepare, and it is traditionally neither an idée fixe nor the centerpiece of a grande bouffe, but a spur-of-the-moment combination of the day's catch. Trying to duplicate the real bouillabaisse is an exercise in frustration, as the traditional combination of fish is not found in American waters. But creating an admirable local version is no more difficult than making clam chowder. Though some will argue that bouillabaisse must contain fish stock, any time you add a few pounds of fish to a simmering stew there is enough fish essence to make stock superfluous. If additional liquid is needed, water will do just fine.
Provided by Mark Bittman
Categories dinner, seafood, soups and stews, main course
Time 1h
Yield 6 to 8 servings
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Put olive oil in a casserole or large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add zest, fennel, saffron and chili, and cook for about a minute. Add tomatoes, and turn heat to medium-high. When mixture boils, reduce heat to medium, and cook 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it becomes sauce-like.
- Add monkfish and raise heat to medium-high. When mixture boils, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the monkfish begins to lose its rubbery quality, 10 minutes or so.
- Add clams, raise heat to high, and stir; when mixture boils, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until clams begin to open, 5 to 10 minutes. Add shrimp and white fish, stir, and cover. Cook, stirring gently once or twice, until white fish is just about done (a thin-bladed knife will pierce it with little resistance), about 5 minutes. (If mixture is very thick, add a cup or so of hot water.) Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Stir in parsley and serve, with crusty bread.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 382, UnsaturatedFat 4 grams, Carbohydrate 18 grams, Fat 7 grams, Fiber 4 grams, Protein 61 grams, SaturatedFat 1 gram, Sodium 1593 milligrams, Sugar 7 grams, TransFat 0 grams
MARK BITTMAN'S ROUILLE
Steps:
- Put 1 egg yolk, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and garlic in a food processor. Add olive oil in a steady stream to form an emulsion. Add redchili flakes or cayenne and 1 roasted pepper; blend until smooth.
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