Cooking With the French Chef: Bouillabaise a la Marsellaise

Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here.

Bouillabaisse is almost as intimidating as paella. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because so much of it seems to involve hacking fish heads from fish bodies with giant cleavers. It’s like a horror movie but with fish. Or maybe it’s the flavor profile–it smells very similar to risotto di mare.

The one time I had bouillabaise was at the long-erstwhile Mimi’s Cafe in Lincoln, and I remember feeling a bit awed by it. Making this famous French stew, on the other hand, is a whole new adventure, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it really was.

Julia made bouillabaise more than once on The French Chef, as well as on later shows. The first was originally broadcast on July 15, 1963, the twenty-third installment in Season One.

The second time served as the opener for Season Six on October 7, 1970, which was the first season to be broadcast in color. Bouillabaise was an appropriately impressive kickoff.

Just for good measure, we’ll also take a peek at the bouillabaise episode of Dinner With Julia, which ran from 1983 until 1984. This episode originally broadcast on December 5, 1983.

And finally, Julia and Jacques teamed up to make “Mediterranean Fish Soup” on Julia and Jacques: Cooking At Home:

It’s interesting to watch these videos back to back because each one is slightly different, yet Julia always emphasizes that anyone can make bouillabaise and whoever tries should use what they’ve got.

Oh, Julia. Wait until you see my bouillabaise.

Obviously, a great bouillabaise begins with a great soup base, and here’s our first round of ingredients.

A bit of olive oil in the pan, followed by the onions and leeks, and oh muh word, this thing was already smelling good. It’s probably really obvious that photographing my stock pot was a bit of a challenge, so I stood on a stepstool.

Next came tomatoes and garlic, followed by water, parsley, various herbs and clam juice. More layers of flavor and more good smells. I felt like I was floating a little bit.

The whole pot simmered for about forty minutes.

And then it was time to strain and cool. Julia said this soup base can be made in advance and everything finished later, so I thought I’d see what rest did for this broth.

Into the fridge it went, and a few hours later, it was time for the fish. Here’s our second round of ingredients.

Yep, frozen fish and fake crab. Not a fish head in sight, or even bones. Please don’t haunt me, Julia. 🙂

The first thing, though, was to get the broth simmering, and yes, my pot only has one handle. It’s been well-loved for the past twenty-two years.

Then in went the fish. It’s too bad a blog post can’t convey smells, because this thing got even more heavenly. About five minutes or so of boiling, well, longer because the fish was frozen, and we had bouillabaisse!

As for serving it up, Julia said to put it in a tureen with slices of baguette on the bottom. Since I didn’t have that, I just put some slices on the bottom of bowls.

Next came the seafood. Julia said to put this on a platter, but since it was only my son and I eating it at the moment, I skipped the platter as well.

Finally, the base. And the glamour shot. I felt the dish needed something green, so I added chives.

There we have it. Bouillabaisse!

So how did it taste? Amazing, if I do say so myself. I had to salt it quite a bit more than Julia said to in the recipe, and I forgot to buy oranges for orange peel, so lemons had to do, but it was still incredible. The flavor profile is very similar to risotto di mare, so saffron, parsley, vegetables and onions. which isn’t too shabby. Very filling, too, and lots of protein. If anyone is doing Keto or Whole30 or something, this recipe is ideal. Just leave out the baguette, obviously.

My husband doesn’t want me to do anything different next time I make this, and that’s a high compliment, because we usually bounce ideas off of each other. This bouillabaise is here to stay.

Bravo, Julia!

A new Club 15 post is coming out tomorrow, and a new “During World War Two” post on Tuesday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you next time…

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The French Chef Cookbook, The French Chef, Volume One (DVD) and The French Chef, Volume 2 (DVD) are available to own from Amazon.

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