Inspired by a Rick Stein recipe Nigel cooked this for dinner last night but cut a few corners to make it more simple. Spicy and delicious, it’s somewhere in between a fish stew and a soup.
For 2 people you will need:
A fillet of fish weighing around 500g we used Lieu Noir (Coley) but you could also use red mullet, sea bass or snapper
A handful of either mussels, clams or palourdes
A small onion sliced
A medium carrot sliced
Half a stick of celery sliced
Garlic 4 cloves, sliced unpeeled
I tablespoon of tomato purée
I medium fresh tomato chopped
A pinch of saffron threads or a little phial of saffron powder
2 slices of orange peel
2 teaspoons of Cap Bon harissa (this brand is quite hot)
A small handful of parsley, chopped
Fish stock powder to make up 75cl of fish stock
4 medium sized waxy potatoes sliced in half lengthways
A couple of spring onions
Aïoli to serve (not compulsory and we didn’t have any but you could mix a tablespoon of good shop bought mayonnaise with a little harissa and a clove of garlic ground to a paste with a little salt)
- Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Soften for 10 minutes on a low heat before adding the tomato and tomato puree, saffron, orange peel, harissa and fish stock. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Take off the heat and push through a fine sieve squeezing as hard as you can with the back of a spoon to extract as much as possible. Discard the solids and put the ‘soup’ back in the pan.
- Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender but still firm. Drain and put to one side (keep warm).
- Cut the fish into 2cm wide slices, pop in a roasting pan lined with greaseproof paper. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Cook for 8-10 minutes in the oven at 190°C.
- While the fish is cooking, reheat the ‘soup’ gently and add the mussels, clams, palourdes. Pop the lid on and in a couple of minutes they will have opened.
- To serve. Arrange the fish slices, spring onions (sliced on the diagonal) and potatoes in the bottom of a warm deep bowl and pour over the soup and mussels/clam/palourdes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. If using the aïoli then add a tablespoon in the centre of the bowl.
Much of this can be done in advance. Your base soup can be made the morning before, the potatoes can be boiled and popped in the microwave to reheat, the fish can be ready sliced to go in the oven. Then when you’re ready to serve, reheat the soup adding the mussels or clams. Reheat the potatoes and pop the fish in the oven. Serve as above.
Bon appetit!
