Don’s Take on Five Fishes Feast

Sunday night’s dinner, by all accounts, was one of the best creations we have ever made. We enjoyed it with good friends.

A traditional Mediterranean meal for Christmas Eve is The Feast of Seven Fishes, a multi-course meal of complete wonderfulness.

But this Christmas Eve, I plan to do my traditional Standing Rib Roast. So for this dish, I went Seven (five for this one) fishes to make it a holiday meal.

I did my take on the main course of a Seven Fishes, the bouillabaisse to include everything. So, you can call it what you want, but this is largely a saffron based seafood stew. And it is fantastic. Deep in flavor.

There are 3 parts:

The Sauce Rouille: A very simple, but perfect sauce.
The Bouillabaisse: The main item
The Bread: Find and toast a hearty thin-sliced bread

The key to this is making a great shellfish stock.

My seafood Stock:
Shells, from shrimp,
1 large yellow onion, sliced or chopped
1 carrot, roughly sliced or chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly sliced or chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
2 sprigs thyme
Several sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
10 to 15 whole peppercorns
1 teaspoons salt

Simmer for an hour. Strain in a fine mesh strainer.

Sauce Rouille:

1 tablespoon hot fish stock
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small red hot pepper (I actually used a jalapeno, since I could not find a red pepper)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Crushed black pepper
1/4 cup soft white bread, pulled into bits
1/2 cup olive oil

Blend this in a blender till fine. Rouille actually means ‘rust’ because of the red color. So mine is a Verde, I guess.

Bouillabaisse:

3 pounds of at least 5 different kinds of seafood. We had local redfish, scallops, crab meat, shrimp and crab.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup onions, thinly sliced
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 large tomatoes, roughly chopped. I blanched them and removed the skin and the core.
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 teaspoons salt
1 long, wide strip orange zest
1 cup clam juice or fish stock
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Sliced rustic French bread, plain or toasted

Cook the onions and leeks. I used my dutch oven.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large (6 to 8 quart) pot on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions, leeks. Stir to coat the vegetables with the olive oil. Cook on medium heat until softened but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the crushed garlic, chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, saffron, salt, and orange zest.

Cook until the tomatoes are soft and broken down, about 10 more minutes

Put in the clams/muscles till they open.

Lay the fish pieces over the vegetable mixture and pour over with 2 cups of boiling juice, cover Add clam juice or fish stock. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes.

Serve in a bowl, Sprinkle some Parmesan on top. Use baked crustines as a vehicle as well.

Put the Rouille sauce on a toasted piece of the bread, top with some fish. Do this a few times. Enjoy the crunch. Then devour the rest!

My friends know I love to cook…and this very well be one of the best meals I’ve ever prepared. It was perfect. And to do it surrounded my my friends, made it perfect.

This is the foundation for many of my seafood based meals