Shantihhh sand it

My hubby makes the best Bouillabaisse ever!

Steve's Bouillabaisse

We first fell in love with Bouillabaisse on a trip to the
South of France.
We dined on this heavenly potion in a lovely small
restaurant in Nice. It
originates from Marseilles a few kilometers away. The food
of the South of
France-Provence is such a grand marriage of French and
Italian fresh
ingredients--hearty and not stuffy or pretentious. The food
is always
enjoyed while sipping a lovely local wine and hunks of
crusty bread.

The secret to a superb bouillabaisse is to use only the very
freshest
ingredients, pernod, and a perfect rouille. When we are
going to make this
special meal we go to the fish market, in our case Oakland
Chinatown where we
can buy all live from tanks. It is imperative to make a
fresh fish stock.
We usually buy a fish head or two and some carcasses and
tails of a non-oily
fish. We add lobster or crab shells to round out the
flavors. We also
insist on a not too dry white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc or
Chardonnay for
the stock.

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A note on fish: don't try to make it with soft fish like
sole or it will fall
apart. The uglier the better. Rockfish, snapper or Monkfish.
Sometimes we
make it with Dungeness Crab other times with Maine Lobsters.
We always
include clams, mussels, shelled prawns and scallops and
loads of garlic.

1/2 cup olive oil [fruity and green]
1 1/2 cup chopped leeks -- well cleaned
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 cups canned or fresh cubed tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons whole, best quality, saffron [more is NOT
better]
2 cups dry white wine
4 cups Freshly made Fish stock
Seafood as available including some firm white fish eg.
snapper, cod ,
monkfish
3 quarts mollusks: mussels, cherrystones [48], scallops [be
sure to remove
the foot]
1-2 small lobsters hacked up
or
2 Dungeness Crabs cleaned and hacked
3 pounds fish like monkfish or snapper
36 medium sized shrimps, shelled and deveined

Serve with: several loaves of crusty French bread torn into
large pieces
1 bottle Beaujolais

(1) Cook leeks and onions in the olive oil, covered until
soft but not
browned -- about 20-30 minutes. Check from time to time. Be
sure the leeks
are done.
(2) Add tomato puree, wine, stock, parsley, thyme, and bay.
Cook gently for
another 20 minutes.
Do NOT add saffron yet.
(3) Add mussels, clams and saffron and simmer 5 minutes.
(4) Add fish, lobster, and shrimp and simmer 5 minutes.
Yield:8 servings

Mary-Anne
San Francisco Bay Area