Bouillabaisse is a Marseille fish soup. Fish soup bouillabaisse or fish soup French fish soup

The French are real gourmets when it comes to cooking. It was on the Mediterranean coast that they began to prepare bouillabaisse - a fish soup, which is also called “Marseille fish soup”, as it is very common in Marseille. The most expensive restaurants have the honor of including bouillabaisse soup on their menu.

A modern interpretation of French soup

Initially, bouillabaisse was a stew of Marseille fishermen, who prepared it from the catch that was not sold and remained in surplus. Later, with the development of the tourism business, the recipe for Provençal fish soup was changed. They began to add seafood and expensive varieties of fish to it, which is why the cost of a serving of bouillabaisse can reach 200 euros.

In ancient cookery books there are recipes for making Marseilles soup with the addition of 40 varieties of fish. Modern kitchen recommends using up to a dozen items. Sea rooster, sunfish, and sea scorpion are the most popular types of fish used for bouillabaisse. The only taboo is river fish; it is in no way suitable for French fish soup.

Fish, shrimp and more...

To create Marseille soup according to the classic recipe, you need to prepare:

• 500 g of sea fish of any variety;
• 400 g of seafood (squid, mussels, shrimp, etc.);
• six cloves of garlic;
• black pepper (about 5 peas);
• potatoes - three pcs.;
• tomato – four pcs.;
• olive oil;
• zest of half a lemon;
• dry white wine - one glass;
• bay leaf - three pcs.;
• onion - one head;
• salt;
• still water – 1-2 glasses;
• spices for fish - one tbsp. spoon.

Bouillabaisse step by step

Preparing French fish soup does not take much time, but the dish can truly be considered a culinary masterpiece:

1. First, finely chop the onion and garlic, then fry in oil in a deep frying pan or saucepan until golden brown;
2. Peel the tomatoes and cut them into cubes along with the peeled potatoes;
3. Add potatoes, tomatoes, bay leaves, lemon zest and necessary spices to the onion and garlic in a saucepan. Fry all components for 5 – 7 minutes, stirring constantly;
4. add wine and water to the ingredients. The liquid should cover the food. Cook the soup for 15 minutes, checking the potatoes for doneness;
5. put fish and seafood cut into pieces into bouillabaisse, which are cooked for about 3 minutes. If the mussels and shrimp have been frozen, you must first place them in a container of cold water. Don't forget to remove the shells from the shrimp.
6. delicious soup is ready!

Correct delivery

In real French restaurants, bouillabaisse is served with stale bread called marette, which is specially baked for this dish.

Traditionally, only the broth is poured into plates, and the fish is laid out separately, and anyone who wants can add it to the bouillabaisse themselves. If the soup recipe did not include potatoes, it is also served with fish.

Sometimes the chef brings a sea scorpion, a predator fish with a spiny face and red-gray scales, to the Marseille soup, as well as a traditional aperitif known as pastis. This drink, beloved by the French, is a fairly diluted anise tincture.

Now everything is really ready for tasting!

Bouillabaisse is one of the most expensive soups in the world. In some restaurants, a portion of this first course costs 200 euros. This is explained by the cost of the ingredients included in it. The composition often includes lobsters, lobsters, and sea scorpion is served separately. The dish belongs to French cuisine, especially common in provinces located near the Mediterranean coast. Initially, it was prepared by Marseille fishermen from unsold catch, it was small sea fish and shellfish. The cost of this stew was not high. Now it is called the poor's soup for the rich and is compared to the "moon sonata." On the menus of Russian restaurants, bouillabaisse can be found under the names “Marseille ear” or “Marseille ear”. It is possible to reproduce this masterpiece in your home kitchen, although it will take some effort.

Cooking features

In different parts of France, bouillabaisse soup is made according to different recipes, differing in preparation technology and composition. However, the preparation process and recipe of this world-famous French dish have some distinctive features that must be taken into account when cooking. Otherwise, bouillabaisse will turn into an ordinary fish soup that has nothing in common with an elite dish.

• Bouillabaisse should include as many seafood as possible. Among them there should be at least one type of fish, several species of other inhabitants of the deep sea. If a soup contains less than five types of fish and seafood, then it cannot claim the title of bouillabaisse. Some restaurants make it from 40 types of fish and shellfish. For the broth, it is not necessary to take fish fillets; its spine and fins will do, so the goal is not as difficult to achieve as it might seem at first glance. It is possible to include river fish in the soup, but it is not advisable - this would be a departure from tradition.
• Bouillabaisse is a fairly thick soup, not water with small inclusions of fish. For 1 liter of water when cooking soup, you need to take about 1 kg of seafood.
• Traditionally, bouillabaisse includes tomatoes, celery stalks, onions and garlic. Other vegetables are optional, but can be added. In some parts of France, potatoes and rice are added to this soup, which makes it even more satisfying.
• Vegetables are sauteed in olive oil before adding to the soup - this is a prerequisite.
• Bouillabaisse contains many spices and spices. The classic recipe involves using a bouquet garni. This bouquet is presented with bay leaf, tarragon, basil, thyme, rosemary and parsley. Additionally, an infusion of sage is often added, for the preparation of which several sprigs of the herb are poured with a small amount of boiling water, infused for 10-20 minutes, and filtered. In some regions, crushed nuts are added to the dish to give it a unique flavor. A number of recipes call for the addition of citrus fruit zest.
• The classic bouillabaisse recipe involves adding white grape wine. Most often it is poured into vegetables and evaporated, less often added to ready-made soup. Wine can be replaced with vinegar, as they do in Brittany, or Calvados, as the inhabitants of Normandy do.
• Bouillabaisse is served with spicy rouille sauce. To prepare it, grind 4-5 cloves of garlic with a pinch of saffron and half a teaspoon of salt, the same amount of cayenne pepper, mix 4 raw chicken eggs with the yolks and beat, adding half a liter of olive oil. To prevent the sauce from separating, you can mix the oil with a small amount of lemon juice and add it in small portions. The consistency of the sauce resembles mayonnaise, the color is red, as if rusty. Some recipes call for adding rouille sauce directly to the soup.

For bouillabaisse, you also need to prepare wheat croutons. In Marseille, it is served with stale bread prepared according to a special recipe. If you dry white bread in the oven, cover it with a thin layer of butter, and grate it with garlic, then such croutons will be an ideal addition to the famous Marseille soup.

Classic bouillabaisse recipe

• fish (preferably assorted) – 1.5 kg;
• squid – 0.2 kg;
• shrimp – 0.2 kg;
• mussels – 100 g;
• scallops – 100 g;
• onions – 0.2 kg;
• leek – 0.2 kg;
• tomatoes – 0.5 kg;
• celery stalks – 150 g;
• dry white wine – 0.2 l;
• orange – 0.2 kg;
• garlic – 5 cloves;
• bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
• black peppercorns – 5 pcs.;
• allspice peas – 5 pcs.;
• basil, thyme, saffron, rosemary - to taste;
• olive oil - how much will be needed;
• salt - to taste;
• water – 2.5 l.

Cooking method:

• Wash, clean and gut the sea fish. Fillet it.
• Fill the fish trimmings with water and put on fire. When it boils, add salt and continue to simmer for half an hour.
• Cut the zest from the orange. Wrap it in cheesecloth along with the spices.
• Peel the onions. Cut into small cubes.
• Wash the celery stalks well and chop them finely.
• Chop the leek with a knife.
• Chop the garlic as finely as possible.
• Make cross-shaped cuts on the tomatoes. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a container of cold water. Peel off the skin and cut out the seals in the area of ​​the stalk. Cut the pulp into pieces and turn into puree using a blender.
• Heat olive oil in a frying pan, fry both types of onions, garlic and celery in it until soft.
• Pour in the wine, simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato mass, put a bag of zest and spices in it, simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the seasonings but do not throw them away.
• Strain the fish broth and add the vegetable mixture to it.
• Cut the fish fillet into small pieces and place in the soup after it boils. Cook for 10-20 minutes depending on the type of fish used.
• Add seafood, after cleaning it and cutting it into small pieces. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Place the spice bag back into the soup. Keep it there for a couple of minutes. Remove the bag and remove the soup from the heat.

This is just one of the options for preparing classic bouillabaisse Marseille style. Other options include adding fennel to the bouquet of spices, boiling fish and seafood fillets not in fish broth, but in a vegetable mixture, and serving broth and other products separately.
Marseille bouillabaisse should be served with wheat croutons, a light aperitif and rouille sauce.

Bouillabaisse a la Toulon

• large sea fish – 1 kg;
• small sea fish – 1.2 kg;
• carrots – 100 g;
• potatoes – 0.3 kg;
• white onion – 50 g;
• leek – 150 g;
• fresh champignons (optional) – 100 g;
• fennel root – 1 pc.;
• celery stalk – 50 g;
• tomatoes – 0.3 kg;
• rice (optional) – 30 g;
• dry white wine – 0.2 l;
• tomato paste – 20 ml;
• lemon – 0.5 pcs.;
• fresh basil – 50 g;
• Provencal herbs, salt - to taste;
• water – 2.5 l;
• olive oil - how much will be needed.

Cooking method:

• Cut large fish into fillets, just wash small ones.
• Finely chop the fennel root, leek and white onion.
• Cut the celery stalk into small pieces.
• Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, peel and cut into large cubes.
• Cut the mushrooms into thin slices.
• Rinse the rice.
• Cut the carrots into slices.
• Fry onions (both types) and mushrooms in olive oil, add carrots, fennel and celery, fry the vegetables for a few more minutes.
• Add tomatoes.
• After simmering the vegetables for 5 minutes, add the rice.
• After a couple of minutes, pour wine into the vegetables and mushrooms, add tomato paste and spices. Add a bunch of basil. Simmer for 5 minutes, transfer to a saucepan. You can discard the basil.
• Add small fish, ridges, tails and fins of large fish to the vegetables. Fill with cold water. Cook for half an hour.
• Strain the broth, rub the vegetables and rice through a sieve, and return to the pan with the broth.
• Peel the potatoes, cut into large slices, add to the broth and boil until tender.
• Cut large fish fillets into portions, place on a baking sheet, and place lemon slices between the pieces. Pour one ladle of broth and place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
• Place the fish on plates and pour in the broth.

Serve with wheat croutons and rouille sauce. If desired, you can add seafood to the soup. Remember that you cannot boil squid and shrimp for a long time - they will become tough like rubber.
To prepare bouillabaisse at home, you can use a frozen seafood cocktail, which will greatly simplify the cooking process.

Bouillabaisse - food of Provençal fishermen and kings

Often a well-known and expensive dish today, at the beginning of its “career” it was the simplest food. Despite its sophistication and high cost (in elite French restaurants this dish costs 150-200 euros per serving) , bouillabaisse soup was originally the food of ordinary fishermen. Part of the catch, which they could not sell, went into a stew - thick and aromatic, with pieces of dry bread.

Classic bouillabaisse soup recipe

When preparing a classic bouillabaisse soup, you should adhere to the basic principles of cooking

Cookbooks offer up to hundreds of variations of this dish. A French chef is considered a professional if he adds his secret to the richness of bouillabaisse soup to the traditional recipe. It lies in the variation of spices and a wide selection of fish. Because of such diversity, it is difficult to identify the original source, the “purest” recipe, but there are cooking principles:

— for one liter of soup you need at least one kilogram of sea fish. River water is not suitable for him.

- small fish, heads and tails are first simmered over low heat for one hour, filtered, and then large, elite specimens are added to the broth.

- classic vegetables for soup (onions, garlic and tomatoes) are always stewed separately first.

- seasonings are the soul of the soup: salt, pepper, fennel, saffron, orange zest, celery, paprika, bay leaf, parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, tarragon and a number of others.

— the basis of the broth is small fish, at least 5-6 varieties. For example, this: monkfish, sea bream, whiting, perch, sardine, pollock, tuna, stingray, baraku, as well as heads and fins.

Elite varieties of fish are filleted, cut into pieces and served in soup: conger eel, scorpion fish, sunfish, haddock, sea bream, mullet, salmon.

Seafood - scallops, shrimp, squid, mussels, crabs, octopus tentacles are not used in the classic recipe, but are suitable for various variations.

The broth and fillet are served separately. The broth is poured into a plate with stale bread, not dried bread, but dried bread. In Marseille there is naturally stale bread Marette.

French cuisine is unthinkable without sauces. A special sauce is prepared for bouillabaisse. rui or, as it is called in France, “ rust". Methods for preparing it will be discussed later.

Marseille bouillabaisse soup - fishermen's recipe

Marseille bouillabaisse soup

“By the blue bay, an old fisherman was brewing Provençal
a stew of various fish, seasoned with... whatever you want.” Sasha Cherny “Bouillabaisse”

It is interesting that in this story the grandson of the old man secretly reveals the recipe for bouillabaisse soup to the little Russian girl Nadya. Grandfather prepared red fish soup and, “to make the sea smell stronger,” added small crabs and octopuses, shrimp, shells and omul. Seasonings: salt, bay leaf, garlic, saffron, onion, pepper, salt... 18 spices in total. It boils for half an hour, and runs over the edge for half an hour. But Nadenka’s bouillabaisse didn’t work out at all, because the ingredients were wrong.

And for the dish to be like a “lunar sonata”, you need to take: sea fish (2 kilograms): whiting, scorpionfish, sunfish, conger eels, devil, rooster and bream. You also need 10 small crabs; from vegetables: 3 tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, fennel bulb, 2 onions and leeks, 3 stalks of celery.

Seasonings - the so-called “bouquet garni”: parsley, 2 sprigs of bay leaf and 3 thyme; teaspoon saffron, sea salt. For stewing - olive oil.

Preparation

In a saucepan, fry chopped celery, leek and one onion, a clove of garlic. You will need 7 tablespoons of oil. At this time, clean the fish from fins, heads and tails and place all these remains with the stewed vegetables. Add water until the trimmings are completely covered, and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.

Steam the saffron with boiling water - 0.5 cups. Remove the skins from the tomatoes and puree until smooth. Chop the onion, fennel and two cloves of garlic, fry everything until crispy. Add mashed tomatoes.

Strain the slightly cooled broth, rub all the thick stuff (you can use a blender or through a sieve). Pour the broth and the resulting pulp into the fried vegetables, add salt and season with bouquet garni. Boil.

Divide the gutted fish into firm fish (scorpionfish, monkfish, rooster, eel and bream) and more delicate ones (sunfish and whiting). First, boil pieces of firm fish in the prepared broth over high heat for six minutes, then cook soft fish for another six. Place on a plate. Strain the broth and pour into serving bowls. Serve bouillabaisse with toasted baguette slices and rouille sauce.

Bouillabaisse soup with shrimp and mussels: photo recipe

Ingredients for bouillabaisse soup

To prepare soup for 7 servings, you need:

- 1.7 liters of strong fish broth;

— 200 grams of perch and mullet fillets;

— 250 grams of mussels and shrimp (preferably king ones);

- 120 grams each of celery, leeks and onions;

— 150 grams of carrots and tomatoes;

- 160 ml olive oil, ground green pepper, salt, saffron, parsley.

Cooking process

1. Place washed mussels in a frying pan and heat until the shells open. Drain in a colander.

2. Fry the fish fillet pieces in oil (70 ml), then add chopped onions, celery, tomatoes, leeks and carrots. Pour the rest of the oil into the vegetables and simmer over medium heat for 16 minutes.

3. Add peeled shrimp, prepared mussels, fish with vegetables, as well as crushed garlic and all the seasonings to the pan with the broth. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Toulon bouillabaisse recipe - preparation in 8 steps

Bouillabaisse a la Toulon

Toulon bouillabaisse is somewhat similar to Russian soup: potatoes and sometimes rice are added to it. This type of soup is more homemade and suitable for lunch in a large company.

Ingredients

Large fish – 3 kg

Small fish – 4 kg

Rice – 100 g

Potatoes – 7 pieces

Fennel root – 2 pieces

Champignons – 10 pieces

Tomatoes – 6 pieces

Tomato paste – 100 g

Carrots – 5 pieces

Shallots – 5 pieces

Sweet white onions – 3 pieces Pastis – 150 ml

Garlic – 2 heads

Celery stalks – 4 pieces

Thyme – 3 sprigs

Saffron – 0.5 tsp.

Espelette pepper

Basil – 1 bunch

Lemon – 3 pieces

Dry white wine – 1 bottle

Olive oil

Pastis is an alcoholic drink infused with aromatic herbs and anise extract.

Step 1. Cut up large fish. Leave the heads and tails for the broth, cut the largest ones in half.

Step 2. Cut carrots, fennel and two types of onions into thin slices, champignons into quarters, and one lemon into halves. Fry over high heat.

Step 3. Cut two potatoes and tomatoes into cubes and add to the vegetables. Then add rice, herbs (celery and thyme), Espelette pepper (can be replaced with any red pepper of medium heat). Fry everything for 5-7 minutes over high heat.

Step 4. Wash small fish and add to vegetables along with heads and tails. Simmer for 10 minutes with vigorous stirring.

Step 5. Pour in the pastis and wine and evaporate the alcohol over high heat. In order for this to happen faster, the pan should be as wide as possible. After 15 minutes, add tomato paste, simmer a little more and remove from heat.

Step 6. Pour six liters of cold water over vegetables and fish. Add sliced ​​lemon, saffron and basil. Cook for 30 minutes over medium heat. Even out the taste with pepper and salt.

Step 7. Prepare the fish fillet: cut into slices, place on a large baking sheet with high sides, cover with lemon slices, salt, sprinkle with basil and saffron.

Step 8. Strain the finished broth and squeeze through a sieve using a ladle. Boil 5 chopped potatoes in a small amount of broth until half cooked and place on the fish. Pour boiling broth over the fillet, let it boil and turn it off immediately. Leave to infuse: the fish will “get there” on its own.

Serve garlic toast with soup. To do this, cut the baguette and brown it on a wire rack (temperature - 220 degrees), rub each slice with garlic.

Parisian bouillabaisse recipe with photo

Bouillabaisse is one of the legends of Provence

Paris loves luxury. Therefore, Parisian chefs began to add expensive lobsters and dry wine to bouillabaisse. Let's look at the recipe in more detail.

Kurt broth

Sauté, without frying (important!), 150 grams of finely chopped onion, 50 grams of white leek.

Pour in 1 liter of water and 600 ml of dry white wine. Season with pepper, a pinch of saffron, aromatic herbs (basil, parsley, rosemary), tomato seeds and tomato puree (300 grams each), two cloves of crushed garlic and salt.

Add the heads of whiting, trout and gurnard, cleaned of gills. Cook for 20 minutes.

Fish and seafood: 2.5 kg of red mullet, flounder, eel, whiting, as well as live mussels (1.5 kg) and 1 large lobster or several small ones per serving.

Peel the mussels and place in a saucepan with chopped fish and whole lobsters. Pour kurt broth with chopped parsley and 130 ml olive oil. Cook over high heat for 12 minutes.

Place lobsters, mussels and pieces of fish on a plate. Strain the broth and then thicken with 15 grams of flour.

Serve with fried Joko bread rubbed with garlic.

Recipes for rouille sauce for bouillabaisse fish soup

Rouille sauce is a traditional Provençal sauce served with fish.

Whatever bouillabaisse soup recipe you choose, sauce rui indispensable for each of them.

The simplest recipe is mayonnaise mixed with saffron, red pepper and crushed garlic. But we are not looking for simple ways. Let's prepare rouille sauce from the following ingredients:

- yolks - 2 pieces

– olive oil – 250 ml

– garlic – 3 cloves

- saffron, cayenne pepper, paprika - 0.5 tsp.

- coarse sea salt

Traditionally, a mortar is used to make rouille sauce, but a blender can also be used.

1. Grind the garlic with a pinch of salt.

2. Add the yolks and all seasonings, grind for 5 minutes in a mortar until smooth.

3. Add olive oil drop by drop. When the sauce begins to thicken, you can pour in the oil in a thin stream. As a result, the consistency of the sauce should be like a thick emulsion, similar to mayonnaise.

That's all, invite guests. Serve each person two plates: one for the fish, the other for the broth. Also serve garlic croutons and rouille sauce. Bon Appétit!

Bouillabaisse soup is rightfully considered a traditional dish of French cuisine. The history of its origin goes far into the past. According to legend, Marseilles fishermen sold all the fish they caught that day, and made soup from what was left in their nets. As a rule, these were fish, shrimp, shellfish, squid and many other marine life. In those days, the dish was distributed only among poor fishermen and it was very simple and cheap. However, a lot has changed since those times.

Currently, bouillabaisse fish soup is very popular among the indigenous population of France and visiting tourists. Due to its popularity, as well as due to the active development of tourism in the French Mediterranean, bouillabaisse is included in the menu of absolutely all local restaurants. Marseille cuisine introduced expensive variety to the soup in the form of lobster and many other seafood, which significantly affected the cost of the dish. Gradually, the soup turned into one of the culinary attractions of France.

There are incredibly many recipes for making bouillabaisse soup. The most popular of them is Marseille. The method of preparing soup is the same everywhere and they differ only in the composition of the ingredients. Try making French bouillabaisse soup yourself using the recipe below.

Marseille bouillabaisse

The classic recipe for bouillabaisse soup requires a large number of ingredients. Despite this, the soup cooks quite quickly and without much effort. The soup will certainly please true fish gourmets. In the photo, bouillabaisse is a thick soup characterized by fish and vegetable variety.

Ingredients needed for 5 servings:

• 5 types of different small fish
• 1 kg fish fillet
• 300 g squid
• 300 g shrimp
• 200 g mussels
• 50 g scallop
• 2 pcs. onions
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 pcs. tomatoes
• 1 PC. carrots
• Bay leaf
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• Parsley
• Saffron
• 3 pcs. potatoes
• Lemon juice

Step-by-step preparation of soup

The very first thing you need to do is deal with the small fish. Wash it thoroughly, remove everything unnecessary: ​​head, tail, fin. Clean the fish, pour lemon juice over it and do not touch it for 15 minutes. Also wash the fish fillet and cut into small pieces. Place all the leftovers that were cut off from the fish in a saucepan and let it cook for 20 minutes without covering it with a lid.

While the fish broth is being prepared, you need to finely chop all the available seafood: squid, shrimp, mussels, scallops. Pour them into the boiling broth and cook for another 10 minutes. After this, strain the resulting broth and put it on the fire again. Then remove the aromatic fish broth from the stove and let it sit for a while.

The next important step in preparing Marseille bouillabaisse soup is preparing the vegetables. Onions and carrots should be cut into slices, potatoes into small slices. Grind the garlic on a grater. Remove the peel from the tomato, remove the seeds and cut into 6 equal parts. Prepare a frying pan with sunflower oil, put all the chopped vegetables there, except potatoes. Fry over low heat, remembering to stir from time to time. Once the vegetables are ready, place them in a clean saucepan and add the potatoes, bay leaf and saffron. Fry until done.

Pour fish broth over the prepared vegetables. Boil a little and add tomatoes, all the fish and pepper. Leave the soup to warm up and become saturated with fishy flavor.

The final stage of French bouillabaisse fish soup is removing all the fish from the soup and placing them on a plate. The soup is served as follows: each guest is given a large piece of fish fillet, poured with broth, a seafood mixture is added and garnished with parsley.

You should know that the real recipe for bouillabaisse soup requires the presence of croutons and aioli sauce. Croutons can be made by cutting white bread into cubes and then frying it. For the sauce you will need egg yolks, mayonnaise and 4 cloves of garlic. All ingredients are mixed in a separate bowl. The sauce should be thick. Add a couple of drops of vegetable oil to the finished mixture. Season with parsley and serve along with the main dish. Truly French soup is ready!

Now the bouillabaisse recipe is not a mystery to you, because you know perfectly well how to prepare it. To get to know this soup more thoroughly, recipes for making bouillabaisse with photos on the Internet or in home cookbooks will help you.

Ingredients

Fish (any) - 500 g

Shrimp - 100 g

Onions - 1 pc.

Potatoes - 3 pcs.

Garlic - 4-6 cloves

White wine - 1 glass

Bay leaf - 3 pcs.

Black pepper (and white, peas) - 4-5 pcs.

Lemon zest - 1/2 pcs.

Spices for fish - 1 tbsp.

• 120 kcal
• 20 minutes.

Cooking process

A very tasty and interesting soup from French chefs. I read it on the wiki, and it turns out that bouillabaisse is a traditional dish of Marseille fishermen, and it used to be prepared from the fish that remained after being sold, that is, from leftovers. Essentially, bouillabaisse soup is a cheap fisherman's stew.

Recently, and all thanks to the endless flow of tourists, chefs from Marseille have created quite expensive versions of this soup using various seafood. Don't faint: you might be asked to pay 200 euros for a bowl of this soup! This is the soup. Yes, there is another legend, guess whose. French, of course. 🙂 So she says that Aphrodite herself treated Hephaestus to exactly this soup every day.

Now imagine yourself as a Marseille fisherman, and let's start creating Bouillabaisse soup.

You won’t be able to “scrape the bottom of the barrel” here, so if you want to try real fish soup, you’ll have to go to the fish market. Almost anything from the sea will do, including fish and seafood. I have mussels in a shell and just peeled mussels, squid, shrimp, salmon bellies, herring and herring caviar. Any fish can be taken, usually 3-7 species. Usually cheap small fish and one or two expensive species.

So, fry the chopped onion and garlic in vegetable oil for about a minute and add the chopped tomatoes (first remove the skin from them by pouring boiling water over them). Add diced potatoes, bay leaves, all the spices and fry everything for a few minutes.

I will say that it is the lemon zest that creates exactly that unique taste!

Pour water, add a glass of white wine and wait 15 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.

Seafood and pieces of fish are placed last in bouillabaisse. They should be cooked for no more than 3 minutes.

It is customary to serve rouille garlic sauce with bouillabaisse soup. The sauce itself is prepared separately, but the easiest way to make it is by combining mayonnaise in olive oil with garlic, hot chili pepper and saffron.

Bouillabaisse soup
A proven recipe for making bouillabaisse soup, step by step with photos.

One of the most expensive soups in the world. Cook at home.

Historically, bouillabaisse was a cheap fish soup of Marseille sailors, which was later supplemented with expensive seafood. But although bouillabaisse has undergone changes in ingredients, it has remained unchanged in technology. How did the “founding fathers”, the sea workers smelling of salt spray, prepare bouillabaisse? They simply cooked it from all the fish that was left after selling the catch. This is how it turns out: both bouillabaisse and another famous French soup - onion soup - are stews for the poor. Meanwhile, such glory! Not only folk, but quite aristocratic!

In many restaurants, the price for a bowl of “cheap” soup is several hundred euros. You and I will not go to restaurants, but will prepare bouillabaisse at home and delight our family and friends with this exotic, but incredibly tasty dish.

What is special about bouillabaisse?

Firstly, the more species of marine reptiles you use, the better. Ideally, if there are at least 5 of them - fish medley is welcome. It’s great if there are expensive varieties of abyss inhabitants, lobsters, for example.

Secondly, the vegetables included in bouillabaisse must be fried or at least gently sautéed, as in Ukrainian borscht, which is not typical for fish soups. And then they are stewed together with the broth until extremely rich, almost distilled.

All other features- the addition of nuts, vinegar or certain spices (saffron, for example) is regional in nature.

Ingredients for bouillabaisse recipe

• fresh fish of different varieties – 1.5 kg
• tiger shrimps – 200 g
• mussels – 200 g
• squid – 200 g
• scallops – 200 g
• onions (or shallots) – 2 pcs.
• potatoes – 3 pcs.
• tomatoes – 500 g
• celery – 2 pcs.
• bay leaf – 2 pcs.
• zest of one lemon
• black pepper
• Spicy herbs (Provençal set)
• some white wine

How to cook bouillabaisse

Buaybes is a complex soup; its preparation takes a lot of time and consists of several stages. If you do everything strictly according to the recipe, you will get a thick (similar to the second course), rich and incredibly tasty soup.

1. Preparing a rich fish stock for bouillabaisse. Start by cutting up all the fish. Remove the fillets of large fish, and place the bones, heads and tails and fins in a saucepan, cover with water and cook for exactly 1 hour. For fish that is being boiled, it is advisable to add carrots, cut into large pieces, and whole onions (with the skins on). By the way, you can use any fish (not just those intended for bouillabaisse), even the cheapest varieties, but you still have to throw it away.

Another component of the rich broth is the fragrant bouquet of garni. Collect all the spices in a bag, cheesecloth or strainer. Add the orange zest, which must first be dried for an hour. Throw the bag into the broth and start preparing the soup itself.

Don't forget to strain the finished fish broth!

2. Preparing vegetables for bouillabaisse. Chop the onion, garlic and tomatoes, place in a saucepan or pan and simmer over low heat. When the vegetables in the saucepan become soft, add a glass of white wine and evaporate.

Pour the chilled broth over the steamed vegetables and simmer on low heat for 40-45 minutes. Don't forget to stir.

Separately, in a saucepan in which the soup will end up, cook the potatoes, cut into large pieces. When ready, mash it lightly with a potato masher. (Instead of potatoes - this is the Norman version of the recipe - fennel is used in Provence).

3. Preparation of seafood. You have already set aside the fish fillets, cut them into pieces.

Then go for the seafood. They need to be washed and cleaned. You can leave the tails on the shrimp (but be sure to remove the intestines if the shrimp are large).

Separate the squid and chop finely. (read about how to clean and cook squid HERE and THERE).

If you are going to add shellfish to the soup, it is better to rinse them several times in running water, and then put them in salt water for a couple of minutes. This will wash all the sand out of them.

4. “Assembling” bouillabaisse. Combine prepared potatoes, stewed vegetables and fish fillets in a saucepan. Cook over low-medium heat until the fillets are tender.

It is better to put mussels, shrimp and clams in the last 10 minutes of cooking (clams even later, 2 minutes before the end of cooking), otherwise they will become tough. As soon as the clams have opened, the soup is ready - it can be removed from the heat and poured into bowls. Add fresh herbs and ground pepper to each plate.

5. How bouillabaisse is served. Bouillabaisse is usually served with a loaf of bread, lightly toasted in a frying pan and grated with garlic and hot sauce. In some cases, the garlic toast is placed directly into the bowl and the soup is poured on top (as in onion soup).

The mentioned sauce deserves a separate word, since a classic bouillabaisse without it is “wrong”. The sauce is called "rui", and it is quite easy to make it at home.

6. Recipe for rouille sauce for bouillabaisse. Crush the garlic cloves with a press (the more the better), combine with 1 fresh chili pepper, add coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper and saffron (the sauce is bright yellow). Mix 3 yolks with a fork and combine them with your mixture. Finally add a little olive oil. It is in this sauce that croutons should be dipped.

It turns out to be a very spicy taste! If you have gastritis, we have warned you!

It will not be superfluous to remember that the inhabitants of the seabed, such as shrimp, contain quite a lot of “bad” cholesterol.

However, these dietary inconveniences are more than compensated by the enormous benefits of fish soup - light, nutritious, containing a lot of valuable minerals, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids. Enjoy!

Bouillabaisse soup recipe
Step-by-step master class on making French bouillabaisse soup at home.

Today, many people have no idea that bouillabaisse, which now costs several hundred euros in some restaurants, was once the traditional fish soup of the poor. How did bouillabaisse become a gourmet dish, and what are the secrets of its preparation? About this in this article.

For a delicious bouillabaisse, you need to prepare the vegetables properly. Namely, they must be fried before being combined with the broth.
This fish soup stands out from all other dishes because a large number of seasonings and various spices are added to it.

French soup also has its own varieties. There is a Marseille and Norman recipe for bouillabaisse. The main difference is that potatoes are added to the last cooking option.

History of French bouillabaisse soup

The history of the famous French bouillabaisse soup has been known since the times of the Marseille sailors. At that time, the recipe for bouillabaisse soup was extremely simple. They prepared it in the most ordinary way, namely, the components of the fish soup were ordinary leftovers from their catch. Leftover shrimp, small fish, shellfish, etc.

An analogue of the well-known fish soup. But over time, the recipe for French fish soup went through a stage of modernization. From an ordinary soup for the poor, the dish turned into an expensive and exquisite culinary masterpiece. Ingredients such as lobster, scallops and other expensive delicacies were added to the composition. Initially, the first Marseille soup was prepared with pieces of bread, which is not typical today.

What is the secret of a delicious fish dish? In order to experience the true taste benefits of French bouillabaisse soup, you first need to have high-quality and fresh ingredients. The fish and all other ingredients must be very fresh. Moreover, one type of fish is not enough here.

For such a dish you need 5 varieties of different fish and seafood. This could be a conger eel, a sea rooster, or other representatives of marine life.
In fact, there are many recipes for French fish soup. But what is the classic recipe for Marseille bouillabaisse soup?

• Cuisine: French
• Type of dish: hot first course
• Cooking method: on the stove
• Servings: 4
• 1.5 h

Classic bouillabaisse soup recipe

• about two kilograms of fish of different types,
• 3 cloves of garlic,
• 3 pcs. tomatoes,
• 1 fennel bulb,
• spices (thyme, basil, tarragon, regular parsley, bay leaf),
• 3 stalks of celery,
• sea ​​salt,
• onions and leeks, 2 heads each,
• olive oil.

French fish soup Bouillabaisse - a classic recipe with photos at home:

Preparing aromatic fish broth
Clean the fish, remove the giblets, remove the tails and place in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, add spices and reduce heat on the stove. You can add an onion cut into 4 pieces and coarsely chopped carrots for flavor. Total cooking time is about one hour.

Meanwhile, start preparing vegetables for the Marseille soup
Finely chop the peeled and washed vegetables: garlic, celery, onions and leeks. Fry them in olive oil, which you will need about 7 tablespoons.

Then blanch the tomatoes and puree them.
Prepare the fennel. It can also be finely chopped and sautéed in olive oil. Later add tomato puree and previously sautéed vegetables.

Cooking delicious French fish soup
When the broth is ready, it needs to be cooled and strained. Then remove the fish heads and grind the vegetables through a sieve.
We connect all the components. Add all previously prepared vegetables and pieces of fish to the broth. Add salt. Cook over low heat for about ten to fifteen minutes.

If you are preparing a dish with seafood, then add them to the pan 3-5 minutes before the end of cooking.

This bouillabaisse should be served in this way, namely, first put a piece of fish on a plate, and then add the broth. A toasted baguette and garlic rouille sauce go great with this entire culinary composition. This delicious fish soup allows you to taste the taste of fish combined with vegetables.
Bouillabaisse is a worthy competitor among other dishes in the culinary world.

French fish soup Bouillabaisse
French bouillabaisse fish soup - a classic recipe with photos at home is easy to prepare. This is a version of fish soup with vegetables.

Every national cuisine has such a dish: in one’s own country it is prepared from what is on hand when there is nothing to eat, but in other countries it becomes a real delicacy. For Italians it's pizza, in Japan it's sushi, and in France it's bouillabaisse soup. In this country it is served in both cheap cafes and expensive restaurants, and it is always popular among tourists and residents of France. What kind of delicacy is this and how can you learn to cook it? The most popular recipes for French bouillabaisse.

History of bouillabaisse and features of its preparation

Marseille is traditionally considered the birthplace of bouillabaisse. Many centuries ago, the sailors of this city, after a long day of work, sold their catch and made soup from the leftovers to satisfy their own hunger. Everything that was left in the nets after buyers had sorted out the good goods was used: small fish, squid, shrimp, shellfish and other sea life. To somehow dilute the smell of fish, they added aromatic herbs and some vegetables that were on hand.

Bouillabaisse was initially very easy to prepare, and most importantly, cheap, accessible to the poorest segments of the population. Nowadays it is often called the rich man's soup. This is because over time the method of preparing it has changed a little and improved, and the ingredients have become much more expensive. In French restaurants, a serving of bouillabaisse can cost about 200 euros due to the fact that it contains scallops, lobster meat and other expensive seafood.

Note! Bouillabaisse has become popular in many countries. For example, in Russian restaurants it is often served under the name “Marseille ear”.

In addition, it is customary to add a bouquet garni of aromatic herbs and spices as a seasoning for bouillabaisse:

• 1 green leek leaf,
• 2 bay leaves,
• 4 sprigs thyme,
• 2 sprigs of parsley.

Now it is difficult to determine a single recipe for this fish soup: in each region of France it is prepared in its own way, adding local flavor to the dish. But there are several main cooking rules:

You can have any seafood and even leftovers from fish (heads, ridges, tails or fins), but at least 4-5 different types, and in fact - the more the better.

The exact proportions of products are also not easy to figure out, but most often they are something like this:

• 2 kilograms of fish,
• 2 onions,
• 2 large tomatoes,
• 2 bay leaves,
• 2–3 sprigs of thyme,
• 5 sprigs of parsley,
• half a glass or slightly drier wine.

In addition, following the example of chefs from different regions of France, you can diversify the bouillabaisse recipe by adding nuts and replacing wine with Calvados, as in Normandy, acidifying with vinegar, as in Brittany, or adding potatoes, as in Toulon.

Various recipes for French soup: prepare it yourself at home + photos

We have selected several recipes for you, which include products available in our stores.

Classic version with rouille sauce

For a classic recipe, 5-6 types of fish are usually taken. In this case, it is better to buy two types of expensive fillets, and the rest can be small, cheap fish.

Take these products:

• 1.5 kg of fish of different types,
• 200 g squid,
• 200 g shrimp,
• 100 g mussels,
• 100 g scallops,
• 2 medium sized onions
• 4–6 cloves of garlic,
• 3 fresh large tomatoes without skin,
• 200 g dry white wine,
• 2 large celery stalks,
• 2 leeks,
• 5 bay leaves,
• 5 black and white peppercorns,
• 1 orange,
• ½ bunch of greens (dill and parsley),
• spices for fish - basil, thyme and saffron.

Instead of fresh tomatoes, you can take 1 can of marinated tomatoes in their own juice. Now let's start cooking:

Rinse the fish thoroughly. In our case, this is a piece of tuna, stingray fillet, barracuda, salmon and lapu-lapu fish heads.

The bouillabaisse soup is ready. But to serve it correctly, it’s not enough to pour the soup into bowls and sprinkle with chopped herbs. A mandatory attribute is rouille sauce, for which you will need:

• 1 egg yolk,
• 1 pinch of saffron,
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper,
• 2 pinches of paprika,
• 1 clove of garlic,
• 2 pinches of salt
• 100 ml olive oil.

The sauce can be made in advance or while preparing the soup.

1. Stir the yolk in a bowl with the addition of salt, saffron, paprika and cayenne pepper. Mix the mixture thoroughly with a whisk, but do not beat it!
2. Add olive oil in a thin stream, stirring the sauce mixture all the time. The mass should become lighter and have a consistency similar to mayonnaise. It doesn’t matter if you need less or more oil: you can determine the appropriate thickness by eye.
3. Prepare the croutons: cut the baguette into slices, place on a baking sheet, lightly sprinkle with vegetable oil and place in the oven for 3 minutes at 200°C.

That's all. Now you can serve the bouillabaisse soup, accompanied by croutons and rouille sauce in a separate bowl.

Toulon bouillabaisse

A peculiar highlight of bouillabaisse, which is prepared in the French city of Toulon and its environs, is potatoes. In other regions it is not added to fish soup.

• 300 g fillet of any sea fish,
• 300 g fish tails and heads,
• 1 potato,
• 1 onion,
• 2 large tomatoes,
• 1/2 fennel bulb,
• 200 g large shrimps,
• 200 g mussels,
• 1 squid carcass (can be frozen),
• salt, pepper, bay leaf, fennel seeds, saffron.

The products are ready, you can start.

Place the heads, tails and fillets in a deep bowl, cover with water and simmer the strong broth for 20 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking process, add salt, pepper and bay leaf to taste.

Cooking bouillabaisse fish soup: exquisite French cuisine at your home
Surprise your loved ones with a fragrant miracle from French chefs! There is nothing complicated about making bouillabaisse fish soup. Various recipes to suit your taste.