Bouillabaisse - Home Made

According to Wiki, Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. After having paid through my nose to eat it at restaurants, I decided it was high time to try making it myself. 

Being the mistrustful person that I am, I compiled around 4 or 5 credible looking recipes and put them together to my own preference. All of them stated the need for fresh fish bones for stock, so I asked the fishmonger to give me any carcasses he had on hand. He only had this ugly bream, and since it was free, I went for it. Ugh. 

I bought heaps of other seafood though, so I think the free fish carcass was well deserved.

I first boiled all the shellfish in white wine, separately so they wouldn't overcook. 

And I marinated some t-bone steaks on the side as well, with fish sauce and pepper (there's a science to the fish sauce!) 

I was starting to get a bit worried after the wine+seafood juices turned cloudy. 

In the meantime, this was what happened to the fish carcass after being boiled. I know the head is the most important part when it comes to stock, but I really couldn't bear looking at the fish head, and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't be too fishy. So I chopped the head off. 

In the meantime, I set all the boiled seafood aside. 

Throwing in bay leaves, an onion, peppercorns and celery into the fish stock 

I chopped up one fennel and put it aside

All the recipes state the need for a roux, made by mixing roasted red peppers with breadcrumbs. So these went into the oven to roast. 

I fried the fennel with leek and garlic - all chopped, of course

Threw in a few pieces of orange peel, and some saffron threads

And instantly, like instantly, everything turned orange, so I decided to sprinkle some paprika too 

All the stock mixed up, with a bunch of parsely leaves thrown in

I cut up some rockling on the side, and since I had flake, I threw that in too. It was a huge mistake. Flake does not go with this recipe! 

The end result was gorgeous though. 

So were the t-bone steaks, done to medium perfection by the husband. They cost $10 for 2 steaks! Amazing value. Would have loved to grill them over fire instead of pan frying them though.

I was too tired to bother with the roux, so we just ate the peppers as they were

Another peek at the pot - this was really gorgeous and I was impressed with myself (!!) but I don't think I would ever cook it again. It took so much time and effort to clean all the seafood, and the worry of overcooking the seafood also added some stress. I spent around $60 at the market buying all the seafood, so with labour included, I can fully understand how a small bowl can cost $30+ at a restaurant.