Bouillabaisse When You Want to Be 1000 Miles Away
Our original kitchen best friend, Julia Child, was a legend for one episode: her Bouillabaisse TV show. Child demystified a recipe that seemed, at least to her American audience, like it was strictly for the Cordon Bleu graduate.
No! It’s easy. You can use most any collection of fresh lean fish (not mackerel or tuna) and shell fish that happen to be for sale at the market or the pier.
More important, the element you cannot cheat on, is to make real fish stock from lobster shells or a big fish head. SLAM! Throw it a pot with water, cover the fish, and salt, and let it boil.
Yes, you can buy fish stock. And you could use clam juice.
Like many great things, this recipe was originally a cheap workingman’s meal. It still is, especially if you fish yourself!
Bouillabaisse became part of the French food-mind on the docks of Marseille. But a stew like this has been made everywhere that people pull their living from the sea. Every pot is ma…