Queen of Fish Soups

"Today exquisite, expensive and noble, in the past it was more of a leftover meal: Hardly any recipe reflects our strange relationship to sea creatures like that for bouillabaisse.

Among the fish dishes, the bouillabaisse is still considered the supreme discipline. No question, it's a fantastic soup. But it is just as interesting how well our - even dubious - relationship to fish can be read from her recipe history.

 

Its origin is said to go back more than 2500 years to a soup made by Phocaean seafarers that contained only fish and water. Forerunners of bouillabaisse may have originated in the Catalan district of Marseille since the 16th century, also because saffron was known there. Despite the spices, this type of fish soup was a poor man's dish, which the fishermen flavored with by-catch and fish species that were difficult to sell because of their boniness (the taste was great, by the way). But it was soon refined, and even the first official recipe for "Bouil-Abaisse à la Marseillaise", published in 1830 in "Le cuisinier Durand" by Charles Durand, listed such noble ingredients as sea bass and lobster.

 

At the latest with the heyday of modern tourism, bouillabaisse became the trump card of restaurateurs on the French Mediterranean. Chefs outdid each other with opulence and alleged original recipes. And because, in the course of blatant overfishing and price pressure, people increasingly lied about the ingredients, a group of French chefs felt compelled in 1980 to set out in a "charter" exactly what goes into the bouillabaisse. Various firm-fleshed rock fish, for example; red or brown scorpion fish, monkfish, gurnard, grouper or John Dory - species that have become more and more expensive and that today are often difficult to find, even on Mediterranean fish markets.

 

The elaborate soup is therefore being cooked less and less at home in France. Seafood is best known to many today as sticks, impeccable salmon and tuna steaks or, if you want it to be really fancy, scallop rounds or tiger prawns. 

 

The great legacy of bouillabaisse is that something that is supposedly worthless, even what we commonly and mistakenly consider to be waste - fish heads, carcasses, fins - can be made into something with a great taste. 

 

There are many variations and cheap simplifications of bouillabaisse, only consistent with a soup whose name was often found above recipes in Provencal cookbooks that did not contain any fish at all. The name is composed of bouillir (to boil) and s'abaisser (to lower), since the stew is first brought to the boil and then the temperature is lowered (and yes: there are other explanations for the derivation).

 

For his "Gourmet Bible France" (Christian-Verlag), François Régis-Gaudry has documented a particularly simple and inexpensive, if somewhat rustic variant of bouillabaisse. We've added a few tricks to the original recipe here.

 

For about 1 kilo of fish you use 2 liters of liquid, water is recommended, but there is no harm in replacing part of it with white wine. Deglazing the vegetables with a shot of Noilly Prat also improves the aroma. The type of fish doesn't matter in this case, it can be different types, it's best to take particularly cheap ones and have them cleaned by the dealer, heads and carcasses also work, of course. If larger specimens are present, they can be filleted, whereby the fillets are initially set aside and their weight is not counted in the fish-to-water ratio. If you can get it, crabs in the soup are also good.

 

For the soup, sauté 1 large, diced onion and a finely chopped fennel bulb in 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a roasting pan; Add three chopped garlic cloves, three skinned and diced tomatoes, some fennel seed, 3 sprigs of thyme, 3 bay leaves and a large piece of orange zest and the fish as a whole and fry while stirring. If the fish gets muddy and falls off the bones: no problem! Pour in the liquid and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, saffron and a dash of pastis and leave to simmer. Then wring everything through a cloth (wear gloves because of the bones!), squeeze out the solid parts well and twist the cloth firmly so that all the flavor gets into the soup. If you have fish fillets, you can leave them in pieces in the soup. Vegetable julienne and toast with aioli or rouille are also fine additions.

 

A very simple recipe from the wonderful freshwater fish cookbook "Abenteuer Fisch" (Alexander and Katja Quester, Joachim Gradwohl, Brandstätter): parsnip soup with smoked fish flavor. To do this, bring 500 ml of buttermilk to a boil and pass through a sieve. Peel 200 g parsnips and 2 shallots, dice and sauté in a little olive oil, deglaze with the buttermilk and 500 ml vegetable stock and simmer until the parsnips are soft. Add 125 ml sour cream, puree and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

 

At the end, let the remaining skin of a smoked fish (or just half of it) soak in the soup for about five minutes and take it out again, but without cooking the skin, otherwise the soup will become rancid.

 

 Add chopped parsley and slices of bread toasted in a pan with a little oil.

 

Of course, pieces of smoked fish, which you add to the soup right before serving, also work as an accompaniment, but that would be the freestyle. Unfortunately, fish, which regrettably cannot be emphasized often enough, has become a noble ingredient that should be used as carefully as possible."