Francois' Normandy-style Bouillabaisse

Jason Burgess

Ingredients

1 cup	Olive oil
3	Onions, medium, peeled and cut into thick slices
6 ml	Garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 Tbsp	Tomato paste
10	Tomatoes, ripe, roughly chopped
1 head	Fennel, roughly chopped
1	Orange, peel only
2	Bay leaves
2 cups	White wine
3 sprigs	Fresh thyme
8	Saffron, strands, soaked in tbsp hot water
1 cup	Parsley, chopped
3 kgs	Seafood, up to 4kg (Main)

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a very large pan. Add the onions, tomato paste and garlic and cook together until the onions are soft.
2. Add the tomatoes, fennel and orange peel, the bay leaves and thyme. Cook gently for 10 minutes .
3. Add 6 cups of water and the 2 cups of white wine. Bring to the boil and add the bay leaves, thyme and the soaked saffron.
4. Boil for 5 minutes, this helps amalgamate the oil and the water and infuse all the flavours.
5. Keeping the heat high, start adding the fish and shellfish, starting with the meatiest first, as these will take the longest to cook.
6. You may need to add more water as you go, the fish should be just covered.
7. Once all the fish is cooked until just tender, turn the heat right down and scatter with the chopped parsley.
8. Take the pot to the table to serve or, if you have one, a very large bow

For the seafood:(use a mix of hapuka, snapper, tarakihi, monkfish, gurnard, squid, octopus, mussels etc). The quantities of each don't matter but you need a range of textures. Clean and scale the fish and cut into large chunks - or ask your fishmonger to do this. You should leave the bones in and the skin on but this is not to everyone's taste