Hello, everyone!

Winter is such period of time that you really want to eat some warm food, but very often we use some small range of recipes because other looks so complicated. For such cases, I decided to share with you one of my favourite dishes from French cuisine – Bouillabaisse soup. I found it in one of my books written by Trine Norwegian food blogger . However, I have simplified it a bit in terms of ingredients. What is more interesting about this soup that the fish listed in the ingredients can be changed to any other type of fish and seafood (you can use even less of it, but then taste will less fish intense). All the photos should make the cooking process even easier.

Ingredients:

1. Fish stock cubes (e.g. Maggi) – 2 pieces
2. Salmon fillets – 300 g (I used frozen)
3. Cod fillets – 300 g (I used frozen)
4. Mussels – 200 g (I used frozen)
5. Onion – 100 g (or 50 g if you will use shallot onion)
6. Shallot – 40 g (optional)
7. Carrot – 100 g
8. Fennel – 1 small or ca. 340 g
9. Garlic – ca. 20 g
10. Red chilli pepper – 5-7 g
11. Orange – 1/2 of average size – we need 50 ml orange juice
12. Tomatoes – 3 large or ca. 350 g or chopped tomatoes in the box -390 g
13. Tomato puree – 2 tablespoon (especially when you use fresh tomatoes)
14. Lemon juice, salt and pepper according to your taste (1 teaspoon of lemon juice)
15. Thyme dry -1/2 tsp or 2-3 g

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Step 1. Prepare vegetables for broth

At this stage we will cut all onion, garlic and red chilli pepper into the small cubes. In the pictures below you can see the examples of cube’s size for onion, garlic and chilli pepper. Then we need to cut carrot into small pieces as it is illustrated below. Wash an orange, cut it into two halves and squeeze the juice – 50 ml- from the orange. Set all of it aside.

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Step 2. Making a broth

Take a casserole for about 2 l, put 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in it and warm it up. Then add all onion, garlic and chilli pepper and fry them for about 2-3 minutes (they should change the colour that much). Then if you also use chopped tomatoes from the box, this is a time to add them. If you use fresh tomatoes than add 2 tablespoons of tomato puree and reduce the heat (6 out of 9). Add earlier prepared carrot and orange juice. In the recipe, usually you need to use a broth – I use for this purposes stock cubes and boiled water. For this soup we need one litre of fish broth, and therefore we need one litre of boiled water and two cubes. Dissolve them in water and add stock into the casserole. Taste the broth and add salt and black pepper according to your taste. Add lemon juice for about 1 teaspoon or as you like, and add 2-3 g of thyme. Let it cook for 20 minutes.

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Hint: If you use fresh tomatoes, you need to peel off the skin from tomatoes (boil about 1 l of water, place tomatoes in the hot water for 25 sec, take them off and peel off the skin). Then cut them into pieces

Step 3. Cut fennel and prepare fish

While the broth is simmering, we will prepare fennel and fish for the next stage – our last stage. Take fennel wash it and cut in halves. Then each half divide into 4 pieces as on the picture and slice it. We need just the white part. I am using frozen fish that was sold as cubes, so I need just to wash it. In case you use fresh fish, cut into a a cubes like on the picture and set aside.

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Step 4. Make a puree from the all vegetable in the casserole (optional stage)

After letting broth simmer for about 20 minutes, make a puree from it. I like soups that are like puree as in French cuisine it is often done, but you can skip this step and go to the next one. The soup still will be very delicious. I make a puree in the casserole while everything is still simmering, but be careful – so you do not damage yourself. The best way is to set casserole aside, and when you are done, put it back on the burner (stovetop).

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Step 5. Adding fish and fennel

If you use a frozen fish, then first add fish to the soup and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Then add fennel and let it cook for 5 minutes (with a fresh fish, fennel should be added at the same time). That’s all.

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Enjoy your food!