Bouillabaisse

Below is a new recipe I just tried. A tasty fish stew that's a great winter wonder, especially when teamed with a nice sourdough and some white wine. (Although let's leave its name as bouillabaisse or zuppa di pesce, which sound far more exotic and attractive.) As with most things, the more seafood that goes into it, the better!

BOUILLABAISSE
Serves 6

Prep 20 min, Cook 15 min

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled & finely chopped
4 large ripe tomatoes, quartered
400g tinned diced tomatoes
1 large pinch saffron threads
¾ cup fish stock
¾ cup white wine
2 large white fish fillets, cut in large chunks
8 mussels, well-scrubbed & cleaned
8 green prawns, shelled & de-veined
Tabasco sauce to taste
Parsley, chopped to garnish
Sourdough cob

Method
1. Heat oil in a large pan and cook onion and fennel until softened.
2. Add garlic and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add tinned tomatoes, saffron, stock and white wine and bring to the boil.
4. Add seafood and turn heat down to simmer for 5-10min until cooked.
5. Add Tabasco sauce to taste and parsley to garnish.
6. Serve hot with sourdough and a big smile :)

Notes

Apologies for ripping the above pic from the net - ours did look equally as scrumptious as that but my camera's broken so we didn't take any photos of our own. And when I say "we", I really mean WF, who proposed, designed and executed Operation Bouillabaisse (thanks!).

Also, we did use a little more seafood than the recipe calls for - we had about 2 prawns per person and a 1kg bag of mussels (which ends up more like 6 mussels per person). Nobody complained of too much seafood...