Fennel & Poached Eggs Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse (pronounced "BOOL-yuh-bayz" or "bool-yuh-BAYZ") is a classic French fish soup from the port city of Marseille and more widely the French region of Provençe on the Mediterranean coast .
This vegetarian version was often made by my mother in Normandie, using eggs instead of fish, therefore less expensive and much easier to realize than its classic version, which require a large diversity of fish. Since I always enjoyed it, I thought it would be great to share it here with you. Bon appétit !
Ingredients (for 4 persons)
500 g potatoes
1 fennel (bulb & branches)
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 leeks
4 tomatoes (if out of season, use 1 can of peeled tomatoes instead, whole or chopped)
4 eggs
1 orange zest
1 pod saffron
1 bouquet garni* (small bunch of thyme, bay leaves, parsley)
4 slices sourdough bread
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
rouille** (optional, see recipe below)
Method
Boil, peel and seed the tomatoes if using fresh. Crush the flesh. Peel and slice the onions, peel the garlic and the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into thick slices. Remove two-thirds of the green from the leeks. Clean them and slice them. Clean the fennel, chop the branches off, keep them whole and cut the bulb in 4.
Heat the oil and brown the leeks and onions. Add the flesh of the tomatoes, the pressed garlic cloves, the orange zest, the fennel and the bouquet garni*. Pour in 1.5 liters of hot water. Salt very lightly, pepper, powder with saffron and stir. Put the potatoes in the sauté pan, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Lightly toast the slices of bread and place them on serving plates. Using a skimmer, remove the bouquet garni and the fennel’s branches from the broth.
Break the eggs one by one into a cup, slide them into the simmering broth and leave them 3 to 4 minutes to poach them. Place them on the plates. Distribute the potatoes and fennel, pour in the broth and serve immediately, eventually accompanied with rouille**.
* The bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, casseroles and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption. Liquid remaining in the bouquet garni can be wrung out into the dish. There is no standard recipe for bouquet garni, but most French recipes include thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may also include basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Vegetables such as carrot, celery, celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are sometimes included in the bouquet. In Provence, it is not uncommon to add a slice or two of dried orange peel. Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a piece of celery stalk, a net, or even a tea strainer, instead. (Source: Wikipedia)
** Rouille is a thick sauce that is often used as a garnish with fish or fish-based soups. The actual name for the sauce is actually the French word for rust. This is because of the reddish brown color of the sauce when it is prepared with a traditional recipe:
Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
1 small red Cayenne pepper
1 knob of bread soaked
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 potatoes
Bouillabaisse broth
Method
Pound the peeled garlic cloves and the red pepper finely in a mortar.
Add the soaked and squeezed breadcrumbs, grind again and work the whole with the olive oil which you will pour little by little.
Add at the same time a potato that you will have cooked in the bouillon of the bouillabaisse.
When everything is well mixed, thin the sauce with 3 or 4 tablespoons of the bouillabaisse broth.
Serve this sauce in a gravy boat along with the poached egg, vegetables and the slice of bread.