Series 2: Part 3 Bouillabaisse

In keeping with the Oceania theme after completing another swimming challenge in the Pacific Ocean with my swimming buddy Anne, it seemed appropriate to have a dinner focused on the bounty one can acquire from such an environment. I was hoping for a less dramatic ending for the meal than the ending of my swim, where in my eagerness to cross the finish line to carve off a couple of seconds I did a dramatic dash and promptly tripped on the mat and face planted! Lucky for me I wasn't in first position coming out of the water (fat chance) so it was not witnessed by the entire swimming entourage.


In the French Chef television series one, Julia dedicates two episodes to fish. The "whole fish story" episode provided the fish fundamentals. It was difficult to concentrate on the content as I couldn't stop being distracted by the numerous alliterations that Julia used with the word fish and I was too busy enjoying and having a chuckle that I had to do a few rewinds of the DVD.... "French are fond of fresh fish, "Flat fish family" "Flexible fish knife" "Fabulous fish professor" "Fish frame" ... with Julia even admitting that "everything you do with fish seems to start with a "f". They were tips not only how to prepare, gut and cook your fish  but also how to eat it. A highlight of the show was the inclusion of a video of a French Poisson professor - she knew her fish and skill-fully whipped her knife around whilst handling the fish with a delicate and respectful manner. She demonstrated "fixing fish" which included wrapping the boned fillets of a fish around its still attached fish head so it resembled a rams head with curled horns. Another dramatic display was threading the fillets back through the fish open mouth!
With a knowledge of the fish fundamentals  I decided to cook the Bouillabaisse for the meal.
Bouillabaisse originated as a simple, Mediterranean fisherman's soup made from the catch of the day and flavoured with the typical condiments of the region - olive oil, garlic, leeks, onions, tomatoes and herbs.
First you make the aromatic broth - boiling the soup ingredients for about 40 minutes. For the fish addition for the broth I used  x2 snapper heads. Once the soup has been strained it was time to cook the fish. Julia recommends you should pick six or more varieties of fresh fish. There was only 3 of us eating so I reduced the fish variety to whole Tarakihi, deep sea cod pieces and mussels. Once we had gutted the Tarakihi and cleaned the mussels they all went into the boiling broth. Once cooked, the fish was removed to a platter and the broth served in a tureen which was lined with croutes - and after the obligatory pose for the camera... it was served and eaten immediately.
There was an unanimous decision that this was a fabulous flavoursome fish feast, fit for felicitation.

Gutting

Snapper heads

Caroline and Anne