At its best, a bowl of bouillabaisse brims with fresh seafood in a briny, robust broth. Today, Bouillabaisse appears on the menus of exclusive restaurants, but those rarified preparations belie its humble origins. Working fishermen in the French port of Marseille gathered the scraps and leftovers from their catch and boiled them up into the heady broth that encapsulates all the flavors of the Mediterranean region. Some recipes call for white wine, some for a little Pernod and others for neither.
Basics
To make a flavorful bouillabaisse, the more fish heads and skeletons you can muster the better, ideally those from non-oily fish, such as red snapper or haddock. You build a base of flavor using classic Mediterranean ingredients, such as olive oil, garlic, onion, orange zest, saffron and bay leaf, then add fresh water and the fish heads and skeletons. After boiling to extract all the flavor from the ingredients, you strain the liquid, pressing the solids through a sieve. Into the prepared broth you add fish fillets, typically a variety of fish available locally, as well as shrimp or mussels if they are available, and simmer the seafood until it just cooks through.
Broth
Homemade fish stock is a healthful food. One cup of fish bouillon or clear soup has only 40 calories, but over five grams of protein. The broth also has 336 milligrams of potassium, an electrolyte that plays an important role in the regulation of your heartbeat. The stock contains no carbohydrates and little fat, most of which is unsaturated or "healthy" fat. You cook the stock base in olive oil, which is an unsaturated fat that doesn't lead to clogged arteries. How much salt ends up in the broth depends on how much you add. The alcohol content in any added Pernod boils off and leaves only a faint licorice taste.
Solids
The lean, white-fleshed fish in bouillabaisse broth is low-calorie but nutrient-rich. A 3-ounce serving of haddock has 76 calories, 17 grams of protein, 298 milligrams potassium and less than 1 gram of fat. Shrimp does contain some cholesterol. Four large shrimp add 26 calories, 208 milligrams of sodium and 46 milligrams of cholesterol to the dish.
Tips
Maximize the flavor of your broth by caramelizing the onions and garlic, sauteing them slowly. A small amount of tomato paste adds complexity to the base, but be sure to saute it, again, caramelizing the sugars in the paste before adding any liquid. Instead of laboring making a homemade stock and fighting with fish bones, you can buy frozen fish stock from a reputable fishmonger or market. Check carefully on the ingredient list, though, and look for additives such as starches or other thickeners or high levels of salt in the broth.
Member Comments