The Penny-Pinching Epicures Soup Kettle
(Page 8 of 9)
January/February 1973
By Marjorie M. Watkins
(1) The bouillee: oil (olive pre ferred), green peppers, celery and—absolutely—tomatoes.
(2) The herbs: marjoram, basil, thyme (fresh if you have even a pot and window sill garden).
(3) The fishes: the traditional ideal collection is (a) a rock fish, (b) a bottom feeder, (c) assorted free swimmers put in whole if too small to fillet and (d) various shellfish. You may use red snapper, halibut, sea perch, sea trout, sea bass, cod—or any available combination—-with crab or lobster and mussels or clams, scrubbed and in their shells.
RELATED CONTENT
HOW TO BUILD ABOUILLABAISSE A LA MARSEILLE
FIRST, PREPARE THE SEA CREATURES. Scrub the clams and—if you dug them yourself—keep them in clean sea water 24 to 48 hours while they spit out the sand they contain. (You can encourage this cleansing by feeding the clams a handful of cornmeal or oatmeal each morning, after changing their water. Or hang them in a mesh bag from a dock or tow them behind your boat for two days.) As long as the mollusks close their shells when you touch them, they're alive, alive, oh! and edible.
A rock crab is killed by dipping it in rapidly boiling water (hold it by the shell, so that its claws can't grab you). Pull off the back, wash the "mustard" out, break the body in half and pull off the claws.
Clean small fish and scale or skin, clean and fillet the large ones. Cut the fillets into serving-size pieces.
SECOND, PREPARE THE VEGETABLES AND ASSEMBLE THE HERBS. Trim the stem end out of the green pepper and cut the vegetable into 1" pieces. Briefly immerse the whole tomatoes in boiling water and then remove their loosened skins.
THIRD, ASSEMBLE THE BOUILLABAISSE: In a large, deep, straight-sided kettle put:
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 leek, sliced
4 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon marjoram
Sauté just till the onion is golden, while you stir occasionally and add:
3 large peeled and diced tomatoes, or 1 can stewed tomatoes
1 sprig fresh fennel
3 sprigs fresh or 2 teaspoons dried dried parsley
1 strip (about 1/2" x 2") of orange orange peel, without white white
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh, ground pepper
On top of these ingredients: place:
1 lb. perch fillets
1 lb. halibut steak
1 lb. cod fillet
1 lb. red snapper
2 or 3 rock crabs
12 oysters
12 to 24 steamed clams
Pour in enough boiling water* to completely cover the fish and add a generous pinch of saffron. Boil, covered, 15 minutes or till the fish flakes easily (but does not lose its shape) and the oysters and clams have opened.
Divide the fish and shellfish among 10 to 12 soup plates, with a piece of hard bread or toast in each. Pour the soup over the bread and deal out the plates.
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