Neven's Cork-inspired Bouillabaisse serves 6.
Ingredients
- Leak, green top left whole, white finely sliced small bunch fresh thyme
- 3 bay leaves bunch parsley, stalks whole, leaves roughly chopped
- 2 strips of orange peel
- 1 mild red chilli
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 leek
- 1 fennel, fronds picked and reserved, fennel chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 star anise
- 1 red pepper cut into slices
- 2 tbsp Pernod, optional, if you have it
- 4 large, ripe tomatoes, chopped
- Large pinch (⅓ tsp) saffron strands
- 1½ l fish stock
1kg of filleted mixed Irish fish and shellfish, each fillet cut into large chunks. (We used a mix of monkfish, whiting with skin on, Dublin bay prawns and hake. - 300g mussels
- 10 basil leaves
Method
- Heat the oil in a very large casserole dish or stockpot and put in the onion, sliced leek, tomatoes, pepper, fennel and cook for about 10 minutes until softened.
- Stir through the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more, then add the orange rind, tomato purée, star anise, pernod if using.
- Simmer and stir for a minute or two then pour over the fish stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer, then add the piece of potato.
- Bubble everything gently for 30 minutes until you have a thin tomatoey soup. When that piece of potato is on the brink of collapse, fish it out and set aside to make the rouille.
- Once the chunky tomato broth has cooked you have two options: for a rustic bouillabaisse, simply poach your fish in it along with the mussels for approximately 10-12 minutes, if you're using (just until they open) and serve.
- For a refined version, remove the herb bundle and star anise. Using a handheld or table-top blender, blitz the soup until smooth.
- Pass the soup through a sieve into a large, clean pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Starting with the densest fish, add the chunks to the broth and cook for 1 min before adding the next type.
- Finish with salt and pepper and add in torn basil.
