Bouillabaisse for my Valentine

Bouillabaisse for my Valentine

One of my hubbies favorite meals is this family style fish stew so I thought I would give it a try for this Valentines day. Fortunately for me little B gave me the great gift of a 3 hour nap giving me plenty of time to create my masterpiece, unfortunately for daddy, I had planned to pick up the mussels and clams from the seafood market around the corner after he woke but since he didnt wake up until 5:15 we were out of luck. Because of this the stew was a bit lacking in depth but it was still tasty and I would totally try it again. The “recipe” I used was based on a version of Julia Child’s shared on the blog Family Style Food.

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup each chopped onion and leek
• 4 cloves mashed garlic
• 4-5 cups, ripe tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes)
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 4 cups lobster water
• Fresh herb sprigs: thyme, parsley, basil (in any combination)
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 yukon gold potatoes
• 1 1/2 pounds each lobster (use the shell for the stock); white fish such as cod, halibut or rockfish cut into chunks, and debearded, scrubbed mussels or clams
• Toasted rustic bread
• Rouille sauce (recipe below)
• Parmesan
• I served mine over a bed of pasta with sundried tomato pesto that was left over from our play date this afternoon but next time I would probably leave out the pasta all together.

Heat oil in a stock pot and add onion and leek cooking until soft. Add garlic and stir for another minute. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, stock, water, herbs, saffron, salt and lobster shell. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat so broth bubbles without boiling. Cook for 30 minutes and pull lobster shells out. Bring the base back to a boil and add the fish and the rest of the shellfish, cover and simmer until the mussels or clams open or in my case until the fish is done (which took about 8 minutes.) Taste the broth and add more salt and pepper if needed.Serve  the soup with a scoop of rouille and cheese on the top and extra rouille on the side to dip the bread in. 

Rouille
1 cup roasted red peppers
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper 
1 tbs lemon juice
1 garlic clove
¼ c bread crumbs
¼ c parsley 
¼ c basil
⅓ c EVOO
½ tsp salt
Puree everything except EVOO in a food processor until smooth. Slowly add the EVOO while processing to form a paste.