Bouillabaise

Bouillabaise (pronounced as Boo ya base) is actually a French dish and the basic ingredients are seafood like fishes, shellfishes, prawns; fish stock simmer with lots of big fish bones and tomatos and other hard vegies like carrots and potatos.

I decided to try this since Greg wasn't feeling all too well last week due to some bug. I figured lots of protein and vitamin C from tomatos will do him good. I did a cheat's version here by cutting out some complicated steps.

1 piece of fish fillet non oily type about 200gm such as dory/snappers/salmon, cut into smaller pieces

6 pieces of half shelled mussels, clean de-bearded

4 pieces of half shelled scallops, clean

6 pieces of oyster meat, drain the liquid if any

8 pieces of medium prawns, de-veined and de-shelled

1 piece of squid

clams (optional)

120ml of water + 1 teasp of chicken stock

50ml of ideal milk or fresh cream for richer version

6-8 tbsp of tomato coullis or 3 no tomatos + 3 tbsp of tomato puree

3 tbsp of brandy

3 tbsp of oil

Salt, pepper to taste

parsely to garnish

1) Clean all seafood, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2) In a large deep pan, heat up oil and sautee garlic till light brown, add harder to cook seafood such as mussels followed by clams, squids, scallops. Continue sautee-ing. Add fish, prawns and oyster meat last.

3) Add chicken stock and water and let it simmer for a little. Then add brandy, and tomato coullis. Let it simmer for another 2-3 min. Add in cream or ideal milk. Continue simmering for another few min till seafood are cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4) Dish up and garnish with parsley. Eat with french loaf. Yum Yum! Cest la vie!