Fishing for bouillabaisse
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On Tuesday, my 10-year-old son, Wylie, and I went fishing. Amy Scattergood tipped us off about the boat -- the New Del Mar -- and we boarded midday out of Marina del Rey. First we caught lots of mackerel -- which the fishermen wanted as bait for bass and barracuda, but looks more like dinner to friends of Russ Parsons.
Farther out, the crew filleted some of the mackerel and cut it up for bait (it’s a fish-eat-fish world out there). Before long, one of the fishermen pulled up a sculpin -- a.k.a. scorpionfish. Bouillabaisse fish! I remembered a February 2004 story Daniel Young wrote for the Food section about the famous seafood stew from Marseilles. Bouillabaisse is notoriously difficult to approximate outside of the Mediterranean because it depends on a fish called rascasse to yield the deep, rich broth. But Southern California, he wrote, is home to the ideal substitute -- a cousin of rascasse called sculpin. ‘Are you guys eating fish tonight?’ asked the fisherman, and gleefully I said yes. We wound up catching two sand bass, and the fishermen gifted us two more sculpin.
That night, we grilled one mackerel and one bass (fantastic dinner, with grilled corn), then with the idea of a bouillabaisse dinner for Wednesday night, I made a bouillabaisse broth, using Young’s recipe (which you’ll find by clicking below on the ‘Read more ‘Fishing for bouillabaisse’ link). Since I only had three sculpin and the bones of the grilled bass, I halved the recipe. YesterdayI had to buy more fish to supplement the stew, so I picked up a couple of pounds of red snapper fillets, along with a dozen mussels. It all came together surprisingly quickly -- just about a half-hour to make the stew, rouille and croutons. My husband, Thierry, just back from New York, didn’t mind waiting -- we had a glass of Ricard while it finished cooking.
It was all so wonderful (my favorite part is the crouton spread with rouille soaked in the broth) I can’t wait to go fishing again. And this time, I’m going for the sculpin.
Marina del Rey Sportfishing, Dock 52, Fiji Way, Marina del Rey; (310) 822-3625.
-- Leslie Brenner
Photos by Leslie Brenner
Daniel Young’s California bouillabaisse
Rouille
Total time: 20 minutes
Servings: 8 to 10 (makes about 1 cup)
2 to 3 cloves garlic
1 small pinch cayenne pepper
1 small hunk country bread (about 3 ounces with crust), crust removed
1/2 cup hot fish soup
2 to 3 potato slices cooked in bouillabaisse, mashed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1. Combine the garlic and cayenne pepper in a large mortar and mash with a pestle.
2. Dunk the bread into the hot fish soup, squeeze out the soup, add bread to the mashed garlic and mash with the pestle. Add the mashed potatoes and mash the mixture into a thick paste. Add the olive oil drop by drop, never ceasing to mash the mixture with the pestle in a circular motion until the rouille is thick. (If the mixture breaks up, mash in a teaspoon or two of hot fish soup or a little more soup-soaked bread.) Season with salt and pepper.
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Fish stock for California bouillabaisse
Total time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Servings: 8 to 10 (makes 4 to 4 1/2 quarts)
Note: For the sculpin, you can substitute 3 pounds small to medium-sized fish heads, frames and bones, though the stock won’t have as much body. Or see the mussels variation below.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions, minced
2 leeks (whites only), chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 pounds sculpin, cleaned, gutted and cut into 3-inch chunks
6 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 orange peel, pith removed, cut in strips
1 stalk celery, cut in chunks
2 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 to 6 (5-inch) wild fennel stems (substitute 2 to 3 teaspoons pastis such as Ricard)
4 quarts boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper
1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions and leeks and sweat, stirring often and making sure the onions and leeks do not color, for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to sweat, stirring often and lowering the heat if necessary, until onions and leeks have ‘melted’ into the olive oil, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the fish, increase the heat to high and cook, stirring often and vigorously without concern about crushing, mashing or otherwise bruising the fish parts, until the fish falls apart and begins to dissolve into the soup, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, orange peel, celery, thyme, bay leaves, red pepper flakes and fennel stems or pastis. Lower heat a little to prevent burning, and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Pour the boiling water over all, lower the heat, and cook at a simmer for 25 minutes.
4. Pour some of the mixture through a food mill or chinois, working with small quantities of fish scraps and vegetables, wetting them down with the bouillon to ease the flow. Be sure to press down on the fish scraps with a pestle or wooden spoon so their juices seep out. Do not give up early. Some of the tastiest and richest juices will be the last to be extracted. Use the hot bouillon judiciously, periodically wetting each batch of fish scraps to help you press out the juices. When you are sure there is no more juice to be had, discard the fish scraps and begin anew with another batch of fish scraps until all the mixture has gone through the mill. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Store in the refrigerator for up to two days or freeze until ready to use.
(Variation: If the supply of rockfish is limited, the juices of steamed mussels will add richness to the bouillabaisse broth. Place 24 to 30 scrubbed and debearded mussels and 1 cup water in a pot over medium heat, cover, and steam the mussels, shaking the pot frequently, until the mussels open, 7 to 9 minutes. Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon, set aside and, if not preparing the bouillabaisse until hours or days later, refrigerate. Pour the mussel broth into the fish broth.)
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California bouillabaisse
Total time: 45 minutes, plus at least 2 hours marinating
Servings: 8 to 10
Note: For the fish, choose among monkfish, sculpin, rock cod, John Dory, red mullet, red snapper (the smaller the better), porgy, pompano, turbot, striped bass, grouper, tilapia and hake. If you plan on picking your own sweet fennel, be sure not to confuse it with poison hemlock, which it resembles when not in bloom. Poison hemlock does not smell of anise or licorice; it has purple blotches on its stems and white flowers. Fennel’s tiny flowers are yellow.
6 to 8 pounds fish (with bones in), 5 1/2 to 6 pounds (if fillets)
1/2 cup olive oil
5 to 6 (5-inch) wild fennel stems (substitute 1 tablespoon pastis such as Ricard)
1 1/2 teaspoons saffron threads, crumbled, divided
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 recipe fish stock for
California bouillabaisse
1 baguette or country bread, sliced
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/3 -inch slices
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 recipe rouille
2 cloves garlic, halved
24 to 30 cooked mussels (optional)
Fresh thyme leaves
1. Cut the firm-fleshed fish, notably the monkfish, into uniform pieces, removing heads, bones, skin and scraps. Cut the other cleaned and gutted whole fish crosswise into 3-inch-wide pieces. Place all the fish pieces and fillets in a very large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, fennel or pastis, and 2 pinches of the crumbled saffron, season with salt and pepper, and mix well without breaking up the fish. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours.
2. Heat the fish stock in a large stockpot over high heat. Add the remaining saffron and bring to a rapid boil.
3. Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Place the bread on a rack over a baking sheet and bake until crisp but not browned, about 15 minutes, turning over halfway through. Set aside.
4. Add the potatoes and fish to the pot, bring the stock back to a boil, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the fish flakes easily with a fork. Correct the seasoning, adding some cayenne, if desired. Remove 2 to 3 slices of potato and one-half cup of the stock to make the rouille.
5. To serve, rub the bread slices with the halved garlic cloves, arrange on a serving dish, and place on the table alongside the rouille. Remove all the fish and potatoes from the stock with a slotted spoon and arrange on a serving platter with, if desired, the cooked mussels. Discard any remaining fish bones or skin.
6. When ready to serve, ladle some hot stock over the fish, mussels and potatoes. Pour the remaining stock into a soup tureen. Bring the serving platter and the tureen to the table. Have the diners dab the garlic toasts (croutons) with rouille and place them on the bottom of individual shallow soup bowls. Ladle stock over the toasts and pass the platter of fish and potatoes. Sprinkle each serving with fresh thyme leaves to taste.