Fish & Tomato Stew/Soup (Bouillabaisse?)

[Mr. X]

Shot a mullet, pollock & wrasse in a recent session - thinking of making a Bouillabiasse. I checked several recipes when I got back (thought there was one, perhaps by Spaniard, on the forum but could not find it). Anyway, there was a huge amount of variation in ingredients, cooking, etc. so decided to just make up my own, borrowing a few ideas here and there. (I didn't have the 2 lobsters suggested by Floyd!).

Ingredients:

Mix of inexpensive fish (& shell fish/crab/lobster if you have them)
tin of tomatoes
2 onions & 6 cloves of garlic
2 or 3 lemons
vegetables from the garden (or freezer)
vinegar/wine/sherry (I used red wine vinegar, malt vinegar, Port & a bit of red wine!)
olive oil
seasoning (salt/pepper/cayenne pepper/herbs/parsley/...whatever you fancy)
plain yoghurt (optional)

For vegetables, we just used what was available from the garden (french beans, runner beans, carrots - all diced small, courgette/zucchini/baby marrow, tomatoes). One recipe suggested potatoes but I didn't fancy it. A little of 3 different types of chile (to taste) pepper. Also added various odds & ends found in the kitchen that caught my eye: a little English mustard powder, a sun dried tomato, a little salt & black, white & cayenne pepper, tomato paste.

Method
0. Clean fish & cut into bite size pieces.
1. [Optional but worthwhile]First, we made a stock my boiling the fish heads & bones for about 20 or 30 minutes & then straining & then seiving.
2. [Optional] Marrinade fish in lemon juice, vinegar & oil (did this in the fridge as the soup was being made later in the day).
3. [Optional] lighty fry onions & garlic (& pos. fish if not marrinaded).
4. Put it all in a big pan*. Bring to the boil. Stir gently, to avoid breaking the fish up. Simmer until cooked (some books say 20 mins., we did 30-40 minutes).

*Keep tasting while adding the seasoning: with the lemons, vinegar, etc. it gets quite a kick - don't overdo it!

Everybody seemed to like it (by no means guarateed). We ate it as a strew yesterday & again as a soup starter this evening (could have frozen it though). [Saved the mullet, seemed too good for stew].

[Oldsarge]

One of the "proper" ways of serving the basic "What will I make out of what I caught today?" soup is to separate the solids out to serve as the main course and to serve the broth as the first course. It's really good if you stir in either a little goat cheese/basil pesto or some garlic mayonnaise! *burp!*

[Mr. X]

Good tip Sarge. The wrasse & pollock are fine to eat as a main course but these were caught with stew in mind. Almost forgot, I added 2 or 3 large tablespoons of non-fat, organic yoghurt that I found lurking in the fridge - you'd never know it though. [The large amount of lemons is a nod to your Crawdaddy recipe -- we really need to make that again]

[Spaniard]

Some fennel or aniseed based liqeuer, like Pernod, also helps to add authenticity.

[sunfish]

It sounds good to me. Large filletable wrasse, mullet and pollack are all readily available here!