bouillabaisse



* breadcrumbs
* water
* olive oil
* sea salt
* cayenne chile pepper







This time I added:
* potato
* onion
* peeled tomato
* tomato paste (for color, actually)
* bay leaf
* saffron
* fennel
* salt / pepper
* kombu (Japanese edible kelp)

Recipes you find online might be very specific about what to add, but that's nonsense. This is a French thing, obviously, contrived by the wives of fishermen using fish found in the Mediterranean, to make use of unmarketable junk fish using their mad skills and their insouciant savoir faire, their natural knack for this sort of thing. 

You'll notice rouille is a spread made of bread that is spread across bread, while cayenne is not a typically French ingredient. So there you go. Do whatever you wish. And use any fish, or shellfish or crab that you like. It's not like your household is a restaurant with a printed menu that you must adhere to. 





1 comment:

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

You are right about bouillabaisse, except it was not just the wives that made it. The fishermen themselves often made their lunch on the beach with the least marketable fish.

I find throwing whole fresh herring and smolts into the pot create a delicious broth. I don't clean them, they go in whole. I will scoop out the heads and backbones and fins (you can either eat them if you need the calicum or throw them away). You can easily spoon out the guts too, but once they are cooked they are not bad.

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