Bouillabaisse is a classic French fish soup with seafood.
Time: 1½ hr | Serves: 6-8 Person
Ingredients
For croutons
- 12 to 16 (½-inch-thick) baguette slices
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, halved
For soup
- 1 (1- to 1¼ -lb) live lobster
- 2 large tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 lb boiling potatoes
- ⅓ cup finely chopped fennel fronds (sometimes called anise)
- 1 Turkish or ½ California bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
- 1½ tablespoons coarse sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 9 cups white fish stock (or store-bought)
- 3 pounds white fish fillets (such as monkfish, turbot, red snapper, striped bass, porgy, grouper, and/or cod), cut into 2-inch pieces
- ½ pound cockles or small hard-shelled clams, scrubbed
- ½ pound cultivated mussels, scrubbed and any beards removed
- ½ pound large shrimp in shells
- Rouille
Make Croutons:
Step 1
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 250°F.
Step 2
Arrange bread slices in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan and brush both sides with oil. Bake until crisp, about 30 minutes. Rub 1 side of each toast with a cut side of garlic.
Make Soup:
Step 3
Plunge lobster headfirst into a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling water, then cook, covered, 2 minutes from time lobster enters water. Transfer lobster with tongs to a colander and let stand until cool enough to handle. Discard hot water in pot. Put lobster in a shallow baking pan. Twist off claws with knuckles from body, then crack claws with a mallet or rolling pin and separate claws from knuckles. Halve body and tail lengthwise through shell with kitchen shears, then cut crosswise through shell into 2-inch pieces. Reserve lobster juices that accumulate in baking pan.
Step 4
Cook tomatoes, onion, and garlic in oil in cleaned 6- to 8-quart pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut into ½-inch cubes. Stir potatoes into tomatoes with fennel fronds, bay leaf, saffron, sea salt, and pepper. Add stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potatoes are almost tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
Step 5
Add thicker pieces of fish and cockles to soup and simmer, covered, 2 minutes. Stir in mussels, shrimp, lobster, including juices, and remaining fish and simmer, covered, until they are just cooked through and mussels open wide, about 5 minutes.
Step 6
Stir 3 tablespoons broth from soup into rouille until blended.
Step 7
Arrange 2 croutons in each of 6 to 8 deep soup bowls. Carefully transfer fish and shellfish from soup to croutons with a slotted spoon, then ladle some broth with vegetables over seafood.
Step 8
Top each serving with 1 teaspoon rouille and serve the remainder on the side.