"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Hunter S. Thompson

Bouillabaisse

Serves 8

Ingredients

For the rouille

• 60g white bread, crusts removed, broken into pieces
• 80ml skimmed milk
• 2 red hot chilli peppers, seeded (optional) and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• .25 tsp salt
• 1 small sweet red pepper, seeded and deribbed and roughly chopped.

For the fish stock

• 1.1kg fish bones, heads, tails etc from shite fish minus gills
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 25g butter
• several springs of parsley, chooped roughly
• 1 bouguest garni
• 10 peppercorns
• 2.75 litres water

For the fish stew

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 large fennel bulb, chopped
• a good pinch of saffron strands
• a strip of orange zest
• 6 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1kg tomatoes, quartered
• 1 tablesppon tomato puree
• 1.25kg mixed fish fillets such as red snapper, John Dory, monkfish. red mullet, haddock or hake
• 100ml pernod

To serve

• 750g small waxy potatoes, such as nicola, charlotte or pink fir apple
• finely chopped fresh parsley
• 16 slices of bread cut from a baguette, grilled

Method - Rouille

• Place the bread in a bowl with the milk and set it aside to steep until the bread has softened - about five minutes.
• Puree the chilli peppers, garlic and sweet red pepper with two tablespoons of water in a food processor or blender. Add the bread and milk and blend again until smooth.
• Transfer the rouille into a serving dish and set aside.

Method - Fish stock

• Rinse the bones under cold water and chop them into chunks. In a large pan, soften the onion in the butter. Stir in the parsley, bouquet garni and peppercorns.
• Add the fish bones and stir to coat them in the butter. Add the water and slowly bring to the boil, uncovered. Simmer gently for 25 minutes uncovered, then strain the stock and season.

Method - Fish stew

• Heat the oil and gently fry the shallots, onion, garlic and fennel in a large pan.
• Add the saffron, orange zest and parsley and stir for a few more minutes and then add the tomatoes and tomato puree. Stir for a few more minutes and then add 2.25 litres of the fish stock and season.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-45 minutes
• Sieve the soup through a fairly large-holed disc of a vegetable mill or liquidise just enough to leave some texture.
• Return the sieved soup to the pan. Taste for seasoning and add more saffron, salt or pepper as needed.

Method - To serve

• Boil the potatoes.
• Meanshile, cut the fish fillets into large chunks and skin any fillet that has a rough, scaly skin. Before serving, bring the soup to the boil, add the fish and pernod, and boil for 5-7 minutes.
• Cut the potatoes, once done, into thick slices and place a few chunks into each warm soup bowl.
• Ladle out a few pieces of fish with some broth and arrange over the potatoes. Sprinkle with parsley.
• Pass the warm grilled bread and the rouille. Guests spread the bread with the rouille and drop it into the soup.