tandy’s bouillabaisse

As food bloggers, we share our kitchens and parts of our lives with anyone in the world who is interested or stumbles across our URL. We cook, style, and shoot our food in little corners of our homes where we find the best light, and we stay up late writing and connecting with others in a virtual world. We click from one social media site to the next, bouncing around like little internet butterflies, trying to find fabulous foodie things.

For me, most of the time, I do this alone. I don’t have a family to feed, so the recipes I develop for my blog are for everyone to enjoy.   I find it a deeply rewarding experience to share my passion with anyone who is interested in visiting my site.

Over the nearly 3 years I have been writing Drizzle & Dip, I’ve met a lot of wonderful South African food bloggers. One of these people is Tandy Sinclair from Lavender & Lime. Tandy has been blogging for a little longer than me, and when I arrived on the scene as the new food-freak geek on the block, she welcomed me with open arms.

We had been talking about a cooking date for quite a while. A real catch-up and sharing, where we cook and shoot the food together and take an actual and real physical look into each others kitchens.

As we live a little distance from each other and both have busy lives, this plan took a while to manifest, but last week Tandy visited me, and we had did all of the above.

Tandy did all the prep for this bouillbaisse at home and did the marinading and cooking at my house. This allowed us some extra time for chats and the hacking open of a young coconut to make a fabulous cocktail (more about this next week).

The method of this recipe is quite different to anything I have done before (not that I did anything), and the cooking time was so short. It was also lip-smackingly-scrape-every-drop-out-the-bowl delicious. When you see the list of flavours in the ingredients you will see why.

This is Tandy’s delectable Bouillabaisse (a rustic seafood stew):

Recipe –  Serves 2 (generous) or 4 (smaller)

  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 large carrot, sliced
  • 1 large tomato, skinned and finely chopped
  • 1 T crushed garlic
  • 1 sprig of fennel fronds
  • Small bunch of parsley
  • 1 sprig of thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Piece of dried orange rind *
  • 500g firm white fish –  I used hake
  • 500g shellfish – I used mussels on the half shell
  • 60ml olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper for seasoning
  • Pinch of powdered saffron – grind the strands in a pestle and mortar
  • 500ml decent quality fish stock
  • Garnish: small bunch of roughly chopped parsley

Using a heavy-bottomed casserole dish with a lid, layer the onion, carrot, and tomato. Add the garlic, fennel, the small bunch of parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and the orange rind. Layer the fish and the shellfish and then pour over the olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the saffron. Leave to marinade for 2 hours and then pour over the stock. You want the stock to cover the fish – you might not need all of it, and if you need more, use water.

Bring this to the boil with the lid on, and then remove the lid and boil for 14 minutes. Gently remove the shellfish and fish and place them into a deep soup bowl. Strain the broth and serve over the fish and shellfish with a sprinkle of parsley.

Accompany with a French loaf (Tandy also made the gorgeous loaf of bread you see in the pics).

* Cooks note: to dry a piece of the orange rind: use a vegetable peeler and peel a piece of the skin off the orange without ‘grabbing’’ the pith. Dry in an oven heated to 100 Deg C for 20 minutes

PS – A little note from me, use the best stock you can and if you have the time, make your own fish stock. We used an imported fish stock cube product that I had bought from Giovanni’s and it was delicious.

 

I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.

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I can also be found enthusiastically pinning beautiful food images on Pinterest. 

14 Comments

  1. oh Sam, thank you soooooo much! I learnt a lot from you and would welcome a return visit from you anytime 🙂

  2. Such a great day Tandy, thanks for sharing your recipe with me and us x

  3. The soup and the bread looks so delicious – I wish I could eat that now!! Wonderful food Sam and Tandy!

  4. Mmmmm! Now that looks divine! Going to try it on a hot summer’s Sunday afternoon, with friends and a couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. Reminds me a bit of clam chowder made by Fth Claerhout, when we used to visit him at his studio in Tweespruit!

  5. Hi Zirkie, its hearty but also perfect in summer. the sauce it s broth vs a dense soup, and seafood is always nice in summer. I cant wait to make this myself.
    sam

  6. Hi Janet, thanks for popping by, yes this is ideal for summer. The broth is light and seafood is always good to eat at this time of year. Sauvignon blanc for sure

  7. Brilliant! This looks divine and the photos are amazing!

  8. Oh my word!! This is one of my fav dishes in the world! What a fab idea to do it together as bloggy pals! I will be sure to pop along to Tandy’s blog! Blogging is such a wonderfully rewarding experience, but yes, you are right, in saying that we do this pretty much alone! I had the pleasure of meeting a bloggy friends from the Eastern Cape at Kamers this past week, and it was like old friends! Such a wonderful thing to meet each other after a year! Amazing pics as always Sam.

  9. Thanks Erika 🙂

  10. Hi Veronica, and thank you. yes it is important to connect with the other bloggers, I have “friends’ all over the world now, and this really enriches my life.

  11. This looks yummy! If you are in Joburg and looking for powdered Safron (Zafferano), you can find it at Super Sconto 169 Louis Botha Avenue Johannesburg 2192? Tel 011 728 2669. It is upstairs at the deli! The brand is Tre Cuochi.

  12. HI Debbie, thanks for that feedback, appreciate.
    sam

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