Best 5 French Fish Stew Recipes

SEAFOOD STEW

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or stockpot, add the onions, potatoes, fennel, salt, and pepper, and saute over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, until the onions begin to brown. Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the tomatoes with their juices, stock, garlic, and saffron to the pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Add the shrimp, fish, and mussels, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pot to sit covered for another 5 minutes. The fish and shrimp should be cooked and the mussels opened. Discard any mussels that don't open. Stir in the Pernod, orange zest, and salt, to taste. Serve ladled over 1 or 2 slices of toasted baguette.;
• Warm the oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp shells, onions, carrots, and celery over medium heat for 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add 1 1¿2 quarts of water, the white wine, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve, pressing the solids. You should have approximately 1 quart of stock. If not, you can make up the difference with water or white wine.

BOUILLABAISSE

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the onions, leeks, chopped tomatoes, and garlic. Cook and stir over a low heat for a few minutes until all vegetables are soft.
• Stir in the fennel, thyme, bay leaf, and orange zest. Add shellfish and boiling water; stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Turn up the heat to high, and boil for about 3 minutes to allow the oil and water to combine.
• Add fish, and reduce the heat to medium. Continue cooking for 12 to 15 minutes, or until fish is cooked. The fish should be opaque and tender, but still firm. Fish should not be falling apart.
• Taste the bouillabaisse and adjust the seasoning. Stir in saffron, and then pour soup into a warmed tureen or soup dishes. Serve immediately.

BOUILLABAISSE

Steps:

• To make the croutons heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Lay the slices of bread on a flat baking tray in a single layer, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 15 mins until golden and crisp. Set aside - can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container.
• Use a layer of the green part of the leek to wrap around and make a herb bundle with the thyme, bay, parsley stalks, orange peel and chilli. Tie everything together with kitchen string and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a very large casserole dish or stock pot and throw in the onion, sliced leek and fennel and cook for about 10 mins until softened. Stir through the garlic and cook for 2 mins more, then add the herb bundle, tomato purée, star anise, Pernod if using, chopped tomatoes and saffron. Simmer and stir for a minute or two then pour over the fish stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer, then add the piece of potato. Bubble everything gently for 30 mins until you have a thin tomatoey soup. When that piece of potato is on the brink of collapse, fish it out and set aside to make the rouille.
• While the broth is simmering make the rouille by crushing the garlic, chilli and saffron with a pinch of salt in a mortar with a pestle. Mash in the cooked potato to make a sticky paste then whisk in the egg yolk and, very gradually, the olive oil until you make a mayonnaise-like sauce. Stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
• Once the chunky tomato broth has cooked you have two options: for a rustic bouillabaisse, simply poach your fish in it along with the mussels, if you're using (just until they open) and serve. For a refined version, remove the herb bundle and star anise. Using a handheld or table-top blender, blitz the soup until smooth. Pass the soup through a sieve into a large, clean pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Starting with the densest fish, add the chunks to the broth and cook for 1 min before adding the next type. With the fish we used, the order was: monkfish, John Dory, grey mullet, snapper. When all the fish is in, scatter over the mussels, if using, and simmer everything for about 5 mins until just cooked and the mussels have opened.
• Use a slotted spoon to carefully scoop the fish and mussels out onto a warmed serving platter, moisten with just a little broth and scatter over the chopped parsley. Bring everything to the table. Some people eat it as two courses, serving the broth with croutons and rouille first, then the fish spooned into the same bowl. Others simply serve it as a fish stew. Whichever way you choose the rouille is there to be stirred into the broth to thicken and give it a kick.

FRENCH COUNTRY FISH & MUSSEL STEW

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan with a lid. Add the bacon or turkey rashers and stir-fry over a high heat for 1 min. Pour in the stock, then stir in the saffron, carrot, celery and leeks. Cover and cook for 10 mins over a medium heat.
• Add the tomatoes and beans to the pan, and cook for 10 mins more until the veg is tender. The consistency will be quite brothy, so if you fancy a thicker texture, use a hand blender and purée a little soup in the pan to thicken it.
• Stir in the fish and mussels, cover and cook for 5 mins more until the fish is just cooked and the mussels open. There will be too many shells, so take some of the mussels out of them. Stir through the parsley, then ladle into soup plates.

BOUILLABAISSE WITH ROUILLE (FRENCH FISH STEW)

Steps:

• Bouillabaisse: Pull out a large soup pot, heat the olive oil in it over medium heat. Add in the leeks and onions and saute for about 10 minutes, until they are soft. Once soft, add in the garlic, bay leaves, carrots and quite a few rounds of freshly ground black pepper. Leave that to saute for about another 5-10 minutes.
• Stir the potatoes into the pot along with the fennel seed, orange peel, thyme and marjoram. Saute for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Add in the stock or clam juice and water. Add in the tomatoes and squeeze in the juice from the lemon (watch no lemon pits fall in). Simmer for about 15 minutes, at which time the carrots should be tender and the potatoes cooked, but still firm.
• This is a good point to make the Rouille (and toasted bread if you are using), while the broth simmers, so skip ahead to that step if you haven't already.
• Add in the fish (not the shellfish yet), as well as the saffron and parsley and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add the shellfish and cook until shells open up (ie with mussels and clams), and the prawns are pink and firm. Adjust the seasoning with sea salt and get ready to serve ASAP.
• Rouille: Mix together the bread crumbs, parmesan and cayenne. Add the water and blend into a paste. Stir in the basil, parsley and olive oil. Rouille should be hot and flavourful so add more hot spice if you like.
• As soon as the seafood is done, remove the bay leaves and orange peel, then ladle into warm bowls and serve with a spoonful of rouille on top and bread on the side. Alternatively, top each bowl with slices of toasted french bread topped with rouille.