Classic Bouillabaisse

While my daughter was here last month, she asked if we could make bouillabaisse; she'd always wanted to. We sat down, perused my cookbooks and finally surfaced with a recipe from Eric Ripert's Avec Eric. 

It's definitely a classic. Tracy made the rouille first and refrigerated it. A couple days later, we bought our fresh seafood, made the fish stock in the morning and the bouillabaisse for dinner. It was fun and fabulous, but..... we were disappointed with the rouille....not nearly flavorful enough. It lacked pizzazz.  So the next day, we punched it up with a few additions and ate it for lunch. Huge improvement. I've made our corrections in the recipe below.

Below, the bouillabaisse was served in a large family style dish with a heaping spoonful of Eric's rouille in the middle. The second photo was taken the next day, after we made our changes to the rouille and this time we mixed it into our individual soup bowls. 

Bouillabaisse
Adapted from Avec Eric by Eric Ripert

Ingredients:

For the bouquet garni:
3 Italian parsley sprigs
2 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1  1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns

For the bouillabaisse:
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds fish bones and parts from white-fleshed fish such as halibut or monkfish
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup Pernod
1 onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small fennel bulb, diced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup diced tomato
1/2 cup dry white wine
large pinch saffron threads
fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
12 small new potatoes, peeled and cut in half
1 small leek, tender green parts only, cut in 1/4 inch dice
1/2 cup diced fennel
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 pound firm white fish filet such as monkfish or halibut, cut in 2 inch chunks
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound mussels and/or clams, scrubbed, soaked and mussels debearded
country white bread
rouille (recipe follows)

Method:
Wrap the parsley, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns in some cheesecloth and tie. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the fish bones and parts and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and saute another minute or so. Delaze with the Pernod and add the onion, celery, fennel and garlic and saute until the vegetables are soft, stirring often, for 10 minutes.
Add the diced tomato, wine and saffron and enough water to cover the ingredients. (about 5 cups) Add the sachet and cook for about half an hour. Remove the sachet and any large fish bones and season with salt and pepper.
With an emersion blender (I did mine in my processor) puree the soup and then strain through a fine mesh seive.
Place the soup in a medium pot over medium heat and add the potatoes, leek, fennel and onion and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the clams and simmer another 5 minutes. Season the fish and shrimp with salt and pepper. Add the shrimp to the bouillbaise and cook until they turn pink. A couple minutes. Add the fish along with the mussels and simmer until the fish is barely cooked and the mussels are opened.
Serve the bouillbaise over toasted country bread with the rouille. Serves 4.

The Rouille:

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon saffron threads
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 roasted and peeled red pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
6 tablespoons canola oil
6 tablespoons olive oil
large pinch of cayenne pepper (more to taste, or use harissa)

Method:
Combine the water and saffron threads and allow to soak until the saffron threads are moist, about 5 minutes or so.
Place the saffron mixture along with the egg yolks, lemon juice and garlic in a blender. Season with salt and pepper and blend about 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the canola and olive oils slowly, creating a thick emulsion.
Remove from blender, add the red pepper, parsley and cayenne to taste. Transfer to a sealed container and keep refrigerated for up to a week.