BOUILLABAISSE

Orange roughy mightn't be the ugliest fish in the world. But it sure comes close. In Australia it is sometimes called deep sea perch. I prefer orange roughy. It a perfect description of its appearance. It belongs to the slimehead family of fish (you see, it just keeps getting worse). No wonder it hides in deep, cold ocean water - too embarrassed to venture near the surface. It doesn't turn up very often in fishmongers here in Australia, but is a great fish for bouillabaisse because it's bright white and holds its shape well when cooked in chunks. Some (like Joel Dean, Giorgio DeLuca & David Rosengarten of NY icon Dean & Deluca) reckon bouillabaisse is the best fish soup in the world. I reckon they're right. It can be served as a single dish (as I have done) or stretched out to 3 courses. It can contain fish, scallops, lobster, prawns and mussels. It can contain potato. This version has just three fishy ingredients - orange roughy, prawns and mussels (proper small black mussels, not the inferior green-lip mussels). You can serve it with or without a slice of bread and rouille. I served it with. A toasted slice of levain from Sydney's Sonoma bakery, rubbed with a clove of garlic and then spread with rouille, a paste of chilli, red capsicum, tomato paste and other goodies. The soup base is a stock made with (in this case) the frame of a barramundi, bruised fennel seeds, onion, dry vermouth, saffron threads, salt, pepper, garlic, red capsicum, dried orange peel and water. I did this in memory of a bouillabaisse I cooked on an aborted sailing trip with Stan and John, 2 good mates, when we sought shelter from a storm at Roslyn Bay in Queensland.

BOUILLABAISSE