French Bouillabaisse + rouille (4 persons)

Ingredients for the soup:

  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 onion, cut into thin rings
  • 1 leek, cut into rings
  • 1 fennel, roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
  • 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
  • 1 anglerfish fillet of 200 grams
  • 1 sunfish of 800 grams, filleted, keep the bones and the head
  • 1 poon of 400 grams, filleted, keep the bones and the head
  • 1 sea bream of 300-400 grams, filleted, keep the bones and the head
  • 2 tablespoons pernod
  • 1 glass of dry white wine
  • 5 pieces of orange peel, without white
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 teaspoon of saffron threads
  • 400 grams of small potatoes, peeled
  • 250 grams of mussels, cleaned
  • 1 tablespoon of chives, finely chopped
  • 4 slices of baguette, cut diagonally
  • 2 tablespoons rouille * (see below)
  • Pepper and salt

Preparation:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the leek, onion, fennel seeds and fennel and let it fry until it turns a light golden yellow color.
  2. Add the tomato puree, tomato and garlic and stir. Place the firm fish in here, let it get hot and deglaze with pernod.
  3. Add the water and white wine until everything is underneath.
  4. Add the salt, the star anise, the orange peel and half of the saffron. Let this boil for 20 minutes on low heat.
  5. Cut the fish fillets into three parts. Strain the stock and press all ingredients through the sieve with the back of a spoon.
  6. Put 1/3 th of the sifted soup in a deep frying pan and cook the potatoes in it until done.
  7. Sprinkle some salt over the pieces of fish and put the fish in another deep frying pan with the mussels, the rest of the saffron and the rest of the soup. Let it simmer for 7 minutes with the lid on the pan.
  8. Coat the slices of baguette with olive oil and salt and let it grill in the oven for a minute.
  9. Remove the fish from the pan, strain the potatoes and use the soup from this to mix it with the soup in which the fish was cooked. Place the pieces of mussels and fish in a deep dish. Pour over the soup and garnish with chives. Serve it with the croutons and rouille.

Ingredients for the rouille (traditional garlic sauce with the fish soup):

  • 2 egg yolks
  • Pinch of Saffron
  • Pinch of Cayenne pepper
  • Pinch of paprika powder
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 5 dl olive oil
  • 1 red pepper

Preparation:

Finely rub the garlic, pepper and salt in a mortar. Add this along with the egg yolks and add cayenne pepper and saffron. Slowly add olive oil until it becomes a thick sauce.