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Mediterranean Fisherman's Soup With Hot Pepper Sauce
(Bouillabaisse)
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| What You Need: |
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COURT BOUILLON
2 cups thinly sliced onions
1 cup thinly sliced leeks
¾ cup olive oil
8 cups water or 2 cups dry white wine and 6 cups water
2 pounds fish heads, bones and trimmings
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped (about 6 cups)
½ cup fresh fennel or ½ teaspoon dried fennel seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 three-inch strip fresh orange peel
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 parsley sprigs
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed saffron threads
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
ROUILLE
2 small green peppers, seeded and cut in small squares
1 dry chili pepper or a few drops of Tabasco added to the finished sauce
1 cup water
2 canned pimientos, drained and dried
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 3 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
FISH AND SEAFOOD
2 two-pound live lobsters, cut up and cracked
1½ pounds each of three kinds of firm, white fish cut into 2-inch serving pieces:
halibut, red snapper, bass, haddock, pollack, hake, cod, yellow pike, lake trout,
whitefish, rockfish
1 eel, cut in 2-inch pieces (optional)
2 pounds live mussels (optional)
2 pounds fresh or frozen sea scallops, cut in halves or quarters (optional)
12 Croutes
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| How To Cook: |
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1. In a heavy 4- to 6-quart saucepan, cook the onions and leeks in the oil over low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until they are tender but not brown (additional onions may be substituted for the leeks). Add the water or wine and water, the fish trimmings, tomatoes, herbs and seasonings, and cook uncovered over moderate heat for 30 minutes.
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2. THE ROUILLE: Meanwhile, prepare the rouille. In a 1½ - to 2-quart saucepan, simmer the green peppers and chili pepper in 1 cup of water for 10 minutes, or until they are tender. Drain them thoroughly and dry them with paper towels. Then, with a large mortar and pestle, or a mixing bowl and wooden spoon, mash the peppers, pimiento and garlic to a smooth paste. Slowly beat in the olive oil and add enough bread crumbs to make the sauce thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon. Taste and season with Tabasco if you have omitted the chili pepper.
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3. A quicker but less authentic way to make rouilleis to combine the simmered peppers, the pimiento, garlic and the olive oil in an electric blender. Blend at low speed until they are smooth, adding more oil if the blender clogs. With a rubber spatula, transfer the sauce ro a bowl and stir in enough bread crumbs to make it thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon. Taste and season with Tabasco if you have omitted the chili pepper. Set aside.
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4. ASSEMBLING THE SOUP: When the court bouillon is done, strain it through a large fine sieve into a soup pot or kettle, pressing down hard on the fish trimmings and vegetables with the back of a spoon to extract their juices before discarding them. Bring the strained stock to a boil over high heat and add the lobster. Boil briskly for 5 minutes, then add the fish (and the eel, if you wish) and cook another 5 minutes. Finally, add the mussels and scallops (optional) and boil 5 minutes longer. Taste for seasoning.
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5. To serve, remove the fish and seafood from the soup with a slotted spoon and arrange them on a heated platter. Ladle the soup into a large tureen. Thin the rouille with 2 or 3 tablespoons of soup and pour it into a sauceboat. At the table, place a croutein each individual soup bowl, ladle in the soup over it, and arrange fish and seafood on top. Pass the rouille separately.
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