Today we are going to Alison Romanize my bouillabaisse
recipe and turn it into my weekday staple
also known as the Cod Stew.
If you know who I am, I am sure you know who
Alison Roman is, but just in case. She is
the food writer for the New York times who
has a way of making food accessible, pretty,
and fun. If Mark Bittman’s and Nigella Lawson’s
avatars had a baby in some virtual culinary
universe, it would be Alison Roman.
So about the cod stew. I love my bouillabaisse
recipe, but even I don’t make it every week.
You have to find a fishmonger who is good
at filleting fish. You have to make stock.
You have to dirty a bunch of dishes. It’s
a project. So I stripped out everything labor
intensive, or difficult to buy, but I kept
all the best parts -- fennel, saffron, tomatoes,
garlic, and wine. This stew will instantly
transport you to the mediterranean coast and
it will be ready in 45 minutes. If I was Rachel
Ray, I’d say 30 minutes, but who are we
kidding, the vegetables don’t wash and chop
themselves.
Ok, let’s do it.
Crumble up a large pinch of saffron in a small
cup. Add a splash of dry white wine, stir
and set aside. This will help the saffron
release its aroma.
Cut a fennel bulb in half.
Remove the core.
Cut it in half crosswise and then slice lengthwise.
Go slow. Fennel layers are uneven and have
a tendency to shift. Set a large skillet over
medium heat. Add 3 Tbsp of olive oil. When
the oil starts to shimmer, add the fennel,
a generous pinch of salt, stir and leave it
alone until it starts to brown, 3-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel about a pound and a half of
yukon gold potatoes. Cut them in half and
slice into half inch half circles or whatever
shape you want. Put the potatoes into a pot
with water, cover, and set over high heat.
Let’s see how our fennel is doing. It’s
starting to brown and needs a stir. While
it’s browning, let’s slice 2 garlic cloves.
If knife skills ain’t your thing, just use
a garlic press. It’s all good as long as
your garlic doesn’t come from a jar. Keep
cooking your fennel until it’s very brown.
This will give your stew that amazing depth
of flavor, so don’t rush to add the other
ingredients. Regulate the heat so that the
fennel is browning steadily, but not burning.
Oh, by the way, in case you can’t get fennel,
just use yellow onions. It’s been about
12 minutes and it looks good. Let’s add
the garlic,
1 and 1/2 cups of canned chopped tomatoes.
Mine are unsalted, so I’ll give them a pinch.
A bay leaf. ½ cup of dry white wine and the
saffron wine mixture. There are always a few
threads leftover in the cup, so rinse it out
with more wine or water and add to the pan.
Let’s reduce this sauce gently on low heat
until our potatoes are done. They just came
to a simmer, so let’s uncover them and season
very generously with salt. Potatoes love salt.
The water should taste like the sea, not like
a dish you’d be willing to eat. We’ll
check on them in 18 minutes. Meanwhile, let’s
prepare the fish.
Today I am using cod. Since it’s so thick,
I’ll cut it into ½ inch pieces. Diagonal
looks nice, but doesn’t taste any better,
so do whatever you want. Any white fish works
here. Haddock, hake, monkfish, branzino, orata,
red snapper. If your fish has a skin, remove
it either before or after cooking. It wouldn’t
get crispy in this preparation and would just
taste yucky. You can also use shrimp or hot
smoked trout. Another option is to take this
dish in a completely different direction and
add some grilled chicken or sausage, or cooked
lentils or beans or whatever protein leftovers
you are trying to get rid of. Sprinkle the
fish with salt on both sides and set aside.
If you do this salting step the night before,
it will taste even better. Obviously keep
it in the fridge.
Our stew has reduced nicely. Let’s see how
the potatoes are doing. Good. They are tender
and we can add them to the stew. Mix it all
up and taste for salt. This is your chance
to correct that, so don’t blow it. Spread
it out evenly and arrange the fish on top.
Add a tiny piece of butter on top of each
piece, though olive oil works too.
A bit of freshly ground pepper. Cover and
cook on low heat for 7 to 10 minutes. Keeping
the fish on top will cook it very slowly and
gently. At 7 minutes, there was no suggestion
of flakiness yet. So I gave it another 2 minutes
and then it was done. Take off heat, uncover
and let rest for 5 minutes. If I didn’t
need a pretty picture, I’d mix it all up.
That’s how I like to eat it. Ok, let’s
get the prettiness over with. A little sprinkle
of chives and a drizzle of olive oil so that
we can watch it drip in slow motion. Ha-ha,
now I get to destroy it and eat it my way.
I want that fish slathered with the sauce
and I want every bite to have all the elements:
fennel, potatoes, tomatoes and fish.
I hope you give this humble stew a try. I’d
love to know what interesting twists you come
up with. Here are more culinary tutorials
for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one
of my classes.
