Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse

5 litres

Mirepoix (vegetable usually used for stock)

1 Bunch Celery                                  roughly cut into 2cm cubes

3 Brown Onions                                  peeled & roughly cut into 2cm cubes

4 Carrots                                            peeled & roughly cut into 2cm cubes

2 Large Fennel Bulbs                            roughly chopped into 2cm cubes

2 Garlic Bulbs                                       halved, no need to peel

2 Fresh Bay Leaves

1 Tablespoon White Pepper

For the rest of the soup

¼ Cup Pernod

¼ Cup Brandy

¼ Cup Vermouth

1 litre White Wine

1kg Whole Snapper                          chopped into smaller pieces, bones & all

1kg Whole Barramundi                     chopped into smaller pieces, bones & all

2 Cups Tomato Paste

10 Tins of Tomato

5 Litres Fish Stock

1 Tblspn Fennel Seeds

1Tspn Saffron

1 Tblspn Star Anise

¼ cup Jasmine Rice

 

Method

1. Heat up a large 20 litre pot on high heat.  If you do not have a pot large enough, halve this recipe
2. Once the pot is hot, add the butter to melt and once melted, add the mirepoix
3. Sauté the mirepoix until it is soft.  Control the heat so that it cooks with out colour
4. Deglaze the pan with pernod, vermouth and brandy.  Burn/cook (take care at this point) the alcohol off and reduce by half.
5. Add the wine and further reduce b half
6. Add the chopped fish bones and stir through, continue to cook for at least 5 minutes
7. Add the tomato paste and cook whilst stirring for about ten minutes
8. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about ten minutes
9. Add the fish stock, fennel seeds, saffron, star anise and rice

10. Simmer for about 2 hours, stirring every thirty minutes or so

11. Blitz with stick blender or a food processor to fine, thick soup consistency.  Include everything that is in the pot, this adds body and flavour

12. Strain through a fine chinois/strainer.  You will get some small fish bits into the soup, just keep the bones out though.

Usually we use a mouli to press the bones through the sieve to get extra flavour in the soup but you can afford to just push the soup through with a ladle to help get extra juice out of the stock and bones

[slideshow]

Note:

Mirepoix –      is the vegetable flavours that are put into stocks.  There are many variations to a mirepoix, depending on what stock you are making but generally, the basic ingredients are celery, onion and carrots.  Addition of other ingredients are possible such as fennel in this case.  Used either fresh, roasted or sautéed depending on the outcome intended of the stock whether it be brown, white, meat, poultry, fish etc.

Deglaze –       cooking technique used to remove caramelized residue off the surface of the pan to add flavour.  Adding liquid at high heats straight onto the cooking surface allows this to naturally occur and some times with the help of a wooden spatula to scrape the more stubborn residues. Usually, alcohol is the liquid used in this process.

Chinois –        a conical strainer used mainly in professional kitchens.  Comes in different grades of fine, medium and coarse.  Chinois is French which means Chinese, to describing the conical shaped hats the Chinese wear and the similarity in the shape of the strainer is where the correlation comes from

Mouli –           a hand operated food mill usually used for pureeing food such as mashed potatoes.  It works as a press that mills food through thousands of fine, tiny holes