fish stew

I wanted to make bouillabaise the other day, but couldn't get my hands on the fish heads, racks and/or whitebait or other small fish to make the base, so I went with a sort of bouillabaise-inspired veggie potage with poached fish. It was pretty good—isn't everything when you slather on the aioli?—but didn't have the depth or (ahem) mouth-feel of the real thing.

• sweat chopped onion, celery and fennel bulb in olive oil
• add minced garlic and, after about a minute, canned chopped tomato
• add water to cover, bay leaf, a big piece of orange peel, (some saffron), S&P
• simmer for 30–40 minutes then adjust seasoning with S&P and lemon juice (Add a splash of Pernod, pastis, ouzo, sambucca,... you get the idea). Fish out the bay leaf and orange peel and then mash or blend the rest. Immersion blender, I love you. Adjust the body with more water. Everything up to this point could be done "before the show", even frozen.
• cook some big chunks of potato is this soup.
• 20 minutes before you want to eat and when the potatoes are almost tender, throw some big hunks of fish in to poach. I used cut up fillets of monkfish, cod and red snapper, allowing about 300 g per person. These fish are firm and mild flavoured; I wouldn't use salmon here, for instance, because it would fall apart and overpower the other flavours.

You eat this with slices of baguette brushed with olive oil and toasted in a hot oven and garlic mayonaise: mayo + about 1/8 tsp of garlic puree per tablespoon of mayo, (a few strands of saffron), S&P.