A couple of months ago, fellow food blogger Charles blogged about a Bouillabaisse recipe and that inspired me to want to make one of my own. It’s finally getting chilly here in Toronto so it’s definitely soup weather!
In 2008 we were fortunate enough to travel with our dear friends Paul and T to Europe. We traveled for 15 days from Vienna to Budapest (I have family there) to Venice to Provence and finally to Paris. We ate, drank and lived like kings and queen’s and had an amazing time. In Marseille I ate the most wonderful fish soup and through Charles’ inspiration, I shall try to recreate my version of this famous Provençal Soup.
On Charles’ blog post I mentioned that I have a secret ingredient. Are you ready? I keep a zip lock bag in my freezer. Wow! Crazy isn’t it? Every time I make shrimp and clean the shells/tails from them (raw), I drop them into this baggy instead of tossing them in the compost bin. Over the summer, I have accumulated quite a lot. Also, if we have lobster or crab which we did, I always save the shells and drop them into this baggy. This is going to be my flavour base.
Because I wanted to keep relatively true to the origin of the soup, I based my recipe on Epicurious because it read like the one I had in Marseille, although I have altered it to our taste. The recipe makes 8 servings, so I will cool and freeze 6 servings for future use. The fresh seafood will be for 2 servings and I will deal with it in the final cooking and assembly stage.
Ingredients:
- 250g or 2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), cleaned and chopped
- 1 large fennel bulb, stalks discarded, reserving fronds for garnish, and bulb chopped
- 200g or 1medium carrots, peeled and chopped
- 500g or 1 celery root, peeled and cubed (I have used this instead of celery as I don’t want to thicken the soup with a roux, I’ll thicken it with vegetables instead).
- 6 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp Herbes de Provence
- 2 California or 4 Turkish bay leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/8 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
- 500g or 1 large ziplock bag of shrimp tails, lobster shells and such
- 1 cup of raw shrimp
- 2 cans chopped stewed tomatoes (about 4 cups)
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 4 (3- by 1-inch) strips fresh orange zest
- 4L water
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- In a large soup kettle, put two tables spoons of EVOO and heat gently. Add leeks, fennel, carrot, celery root, garlic, herbes de Provence, bay leaves, cayenne, saffron and 1/2 teaspoon pepper cooking over medium heat, stirring occasionally about 10 minutes.
- Add the water and the bag of shrimp tails, lobsters shells and such. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 2-3 hours (the broth should have a lovely seafood flavour and aroma).
- Force this mixture (yes, even the shrimp tails and lobster shells) through a food mill. You will not believe the flavour you will get from the seafood dregs!
- Add the canned tomatoes, wine and orange zest and bring back up to a boil for a minute or two. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a bout 15 minutes. Now press this through a fine sieve to make it a creamy silken soup (although the authentic soup does have some bits and chunks in it)
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Set aside to cool and portion into plastic containers for freezing.
Ingredients for serving for two:
- 2 portions of the previously made soup
- 6 raw large shrimp
- 300g of sturdy white fish, such as Haddock, or Hallibut
- any other seafood you wish to add
Directions:
- On the day that you wish to serve this soup, defrost the portions you need, and reheat to a slow boil. Add the fish and shrimp and cook through.
- Serve immediately with crostini and saffron aioli.
[…] but I remembered I had a bag of lobster carcass in my freezer and I knew I had the ingredients for my stock. At the time, we were still off eating fresh salmon because I wasn’t sure what the influenza […]
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This looks awesome! I don’t feel like I cook enough with seafood – would definitely love to try my hand with some homemade stock. Yummmmmmm —
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Thanks Bill. It was very flavourful and I made enough to freeze. We’ll be enjoying our soup from Provence for quite some time!
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Hi Eva! It’s funny that you commented about Charlene’s shrimp shells…she saved some! I save my chicken bones/carcasses and I wash my vegetables and save the peelings and/or ends for stock as well. (except pepper, it over powers the flavor). I especially save carrot peels, celery strings and onion ends…..there is nothing quite like it! I call it “junk stock”!
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Hadn’t thought about saving the ends, Ann; great tip! I have chicken bones in the freezer now, waiting for the right time for soup!
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i LOVE this soup, it reminds me of the South of France, wish I was there now! Sounds like the soup was worth all the effort too! Bon appetit!
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Thanks for the shout out Eva! This looks fabulous. Great minds think alike I see, on the shell-saving tips! Sometimes, each year after our Swedish crayfish party we save the shells and make a lovely pasta sauce out of the heads. So much flavour in those shells… seems such a waste to just chuck them!
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love the pictures..such a beautiful city
the soup sounds comforting and loaded with flavor..thank you for sharing your secret ingredient with us
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Beautiful photos of your trip Eva – such nice memories. Love your idea of saving shells and using them as your base – simply brilliant! This must be one tasty and aromatic soup.
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The soup was very tasty, Kelly. The shells and tails have a lot a flavour, and in these tough economical times, seems like the right thing to do!
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Great recipe, Eva! Yes, this may be soup season but your bouillabaisse is the soup for all seasons. And I, too, keep a bag of shrimp shells in my freezer. You just never know when you’re going to need shrimp stock. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. 🙂
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Thanks John. Great minds!
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Oh Eva! This looks fabulous. And I absolutely love that you save the shells from the fish in a bag in the freezer. I’m sure that has to make a major flavor difference to this stock. Your pictures from Notre Dame are beautiful too. I just love how colorful European vistas are with the pink and red roofs.
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Thanks Kristy, it’s almost like free soup! I got the idea from years ago, my Mom’s best friend used to ask us to save the turkey bones at Thanksgiving and Easter to make soup with; I just thought if you can squeeze some flavor out of cooked turkey bones, then why not lobster shells?
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