Have you tried bouillabaisse? It’s one of my favourite dishes because it’s a specialty of the region where I live in France, and because it calls to mind my childhood. Growing up, my parents would throw big parties for relatives and friends at our home, and my father would cook for the occasion his best dish: bouillabaisse. How I looked forward to dinner time, for my father’s recipe was out of this world – all these years later, as I write I can almost taste it. I made a game of it once I was an adult, choosing bouillabaisse on the menu in restaurants and seeing how effectively it cast me back to childhood. No dish yet has quite lived up to that memory, not even my own, although a restaurant near my home in France has come close.

Bouillabaisse originates from Marseilles, and it is essentially a stew comprising five or six types of fish, vegetables like leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery and potatoes, and Provençal herbs and spices. Each chef – even the best in France – has a different take on the dish, which I think accounts for its popularity. Some use potatoes; some do not. Some add the fish to the broth; some serve them on the side. Most serve the dish with a rouille, which is a kind of mayonnaise with garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper, spread on grilled slices of local bread which may be served on the side, or dropped into the stew.

The types of fish added to the bouillabaisse vary depending on those available to the chef, and the chef’s personal choice. You may find scorpionfish, conger, beam, monkfish, turbot, octopus, mussels and crabs. Having grown up living by the Mediterranean, I have always loved fish – and this dish incorporates so many types that I find the blend of flavours quite delicious.

With so many ingredients, making bouillabaisse at home is a lengthy and involved process. I’ve developed a simple cheats’ recipe you can try to get a simple flavour of the dish. I do hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1 leek, thinly sliced

1 can plum tomatoes

2 teaspoons of herbs de Provence

6 cups fish stock (fresh or made up)

Your preferred fish – most supermarkets do a ‘fish pie’ mix, or choose three types of fish like cod, halibut or snapper and some prawns and mussels

1. Fry the garlic, onion and celery in the oil until brown.

2. Add the tomatoes, herbs and stock and bring to the boil.

3. Simmer until the liquid reduces (about 15 minutes).

4. Reduce the heat and add the fish. Cook for 2 minutes.

5. Add any mussels and prawns and simmer until the shells open and the fish is flakey (about 5 minutes).

Serve with crusty bread. If you want to add in a simply rouille, simply stir crushed garlic and a dash of cayenne pepper into mayonnaise.