The Cookery Clubs spring menu and Gaynor's Bouillabaisse

The Kikoklu (Kiel Koch Klub) Spring Menu

The hosting of our cookery club Spring meet, fell on to Linda and I, I had thought about it long and hard (all of 5 seconds) and as I am a great lover of fish amongst most other things (tee hee some say I am just a great lover) and the rest of the club members also like a nice bit of cod and chips, I decided it would be a favourite of mine from down on the Mediterranean coast of France, well to be exact the Provençal coast around Marseille, A bouillabaisse.

It is thought to have been developed from a poor fishermen’s dish , the fishermen using the rock fish and the rest of the fish and seafood that they hadn’t or couldn’t sell added a few local herbs and vegetables and made a soup with it. The word bouillabaisse is thought to come from the French for boil vigorously and lower the heat; this is exactly the procedure that occurs when making the dish.  There is a somewhat unbelievable story about it being called after the boil on a nun’s neck, what utter rubbish, how could such a fantastic meal be named after puss?

The original poor fisherman’s meal of leftover fish, being cooked in seawater, flavoured with local herbs and vegetables has been developed into a much prized delicacy, made all over the South of France but is most famous served around the harbour in Marseille.  In fact some of the cities restaurants have come up with a charter in what is contained in a tradition Marseille Bouillabaisse.
I have tried to replicate the meal using traditional ingredients and using the boil and simmer procedure.


I have also named this recipe after a fine person who was a member of the old BBC Food Board, who unfortunately died before I could meet her. Never the less she was a great and knowledgeable person in matters of food and I believe cats. She would brook no nonsense from people mucking around with her traditional Bouillabaisse! So this is in homage to Gaynor’s memory.


I made my Bouillabaisse in two parts, but at different times, I made my stock for the meal after going shopping to the Gütersloh’s mid-week market that has a reasonable Dutch fish stall.
I then bought the main eating fish from the Kiel market on Saturday morning, I have a good rapport with the owner of the largest fish stall (Lange), I asked for a rascasse, he was not amused and rolling his eyes retorted, that if I required exotics then tell him a week in advance, I then asked for conger, he said can you come b ack next week, I explained that I was producing a bouillabaisse that evening.

The ugliest fish in the world (not Herr Lange)

skinning the monster

two nice slices

The soup would of course be served poured over croutons, fried in olive oil until crisp, rubbed with garlic and dolloped with the wonderful fiery rouille. I also made a pot of Aioli for those that wanted to have that on baguette served with the main dish.

I noticed some nice red mullet, gurnards and monkfish fillets and so bought these from his assistant, as he had disappeared behind (we were very early and they were still stocking the front show trays). He then reappeared like a magician with not a rabbit but with a massive steinbeisser (Anarhichas lupus) or wolffish , this is one of the ugliest fish that has ever come from the deep.
He said what did I think about that? I at once said 2 slices please, he then skinned and butchered (this is the best word) it for us, he is really an expert in his trade and it is always a pleasure to do business with him.

Though he did have bass and bream, I had seen that at a fish-shop up in town they had them on a special offer at €9.90 a kg. so it was there that I bought them. That was everything bought fish wise, we next bought the vegetables.  

Bouillabaisse in Gaynor’s honour

For the stock you will require a good assortment of small fish, I used gurnard, whittling and haddock.

the stock ingredients

Gut, clean and remove the black vein that runs down the inside of the backbone also the gills (these can make the stock taste bitter). Cut the fish into portions.

removing the gills and back vein

The fish cut into chunks

½ Fennel bulb

1 large onion

The white of a leek

1 Carrot

A slice of celeriac

3 cloves of garlic

1 small chilli

2 Bay leaves

Some parsley stalks

1 tsp. Black pepper

1 table spoon of sea salt, I used herbal infused salt
2 table spoons of olive oil

100ml of chardonnay


Roughly chop the vegetables, heat the olive oil in a large pot, add the vegetables, bay leaves, parsley stalks, chilli,  salt and pepper corns.

Soften the vegetables and add the white wine, add the fish and add enough water to just cover all of the ingredients. Bring to the boil and lower the heat to a simmer.

Skim the impurities as it rises to the surface, simmer for a good 25 minutes, strain through a funnel sieve into a clean pan, pushing down with the back of a ladle to get all of the goodness out of the vegetables and fish.

You now have a fantastic fish stock.

That evening we knew that we would be in a bit of a rush what with the shopping and meeting our Berlin friends. So Linda made the rouille and I made an Aioli. The rouille was made to Rick Steins Recipe from his French Odyssey. This uses a homemade harissa made with roasted peppers. I think it is well worth the effort to make this, though you can use bought (crying smile)

Linda making Rick Steins Rouille

So it was Saturday after doing our shopping and we had friends arriving back from Norway on the Colour Magic, we headed down to the quay just in time to see it coming astern into its berth. We met our dear friends (some of my oldest friends in Germany) we had a coffee at the Blau Engel a small café at the Klappbrücke. They headed off to Berlin (I shall be meeting them again later in the week as we are off to the German Touring Car tournament (DTM).

Once home the fish needed preparing; this was descaling and removing the fins, tails and gills.

The fish for the fish course of the bouillabaisse consisted of:

2 thick slices of wolffish (Steinbeißer)
2 large filets of monk fish (Seeteufel) 
6 red mullet (Rotbarben)
3 bass (Wolfsbarsch)
1 large gilt head bream  (Dorado)
8 red gurnards or sea robins (Knurrhahn)
30 Dublin bay prawns  or langoustines (also known as Norway lobsters or scampi) I used these in place of the cigale locust prawns that if available would be used in the traditional dish.

The rest of the ingredients for the final bouillabaisse

1 tin of diced tomatoes and herbs

½ a fennel bulb sliced thinly
White of quite a large leek sliced into rings
½ a large onion diced quite fine

2 crushed garlic cloves

The fish and langoustine, prepared, behind LtoR garlic, tomatoes, rouille, saffran

A bouquet garni consisting of a sprig of rosemary, a few sprigs of thyme, a sprig of basil, 2 bay leaves, 2 strips of dried orange zest all tied together.

A good pinch of saffron

2 tsp. of homemade harrisa paste

2 table spoons of olive oil

I also pre-cooked some small potatoes in fish stock and saffron. These would be added at the end of the cooking the bouillabaisse.

So the menu for the evening was to be:


To start off the evening was a cocktail from Martin:

A very nice cocktail indeed

Then I had made a very nice amuse Gueule, or for the more refined amongst you Amuse Bouche. We had first had this at our friends Jacquie and Ian who live in France and have a wonderful Gite in the Argent.  This was served with a 2009 Mosel Ockfener Bockstein hochgewächs halbtrocken

The Foise Gras stuffed dates (Kaiserdateln)

Next came Marianne’s wonderful starter (the first of two)

Green Asparagus and Prawn Parcels

Ready for the oven

The presentation

 wow what a super starter

This consisted of a parcel of Oriental delight baked in the oven and a fruity salad accompaniment.


To make this for 6 you will require:


6 sticks of green asparagus
18  precooked tiger prawns
1 pinch of medium paprika (piment d' Espellete or the like)
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic crushed to a paste
2 dsp of soya sauce
pinch of course sea salt
2 sticks of spring onions (scallions)
some slices of lemon cut into quarters
4-5 dsp of dry white wine (well we had plenty of that lying around)
Fleur de sel and fresh ground black pepper
Snip some chives for decoration.
Parchment paper cut into 6 pieces, each 20x15cm.

 Process


Pre-heat the oven to 210°c.


Make a marinade out of the olive oil, paprika, garlic, and soya sauce, put the tiger prawns into this and set aside to marinate.


Now cut the asparagus into bite size lengths and poach in salted water for about 4-5 minutes.


Cut the spring onion into fine rings.


Brush the pieces parchment paper with olive oil and place asparagus pieces, spring onions and lemon on each, then 3 prawns on top.
Sprinkle each parcel with white wine and a grinding of pepper and some flakes of Fleur d' Sel. Add the chives on top.
Fold the parchment around the contents into a heretically sealed parcels, tying with kitchen string and place into the oven for 8 minutes.
Put each of the parcels on a plate (or a slate if you wish to be at the cutting edge of cuisine, yuk) and along side a glass with a fine avocado/orange/grapefruit salad.

 With it we drank a cheeky little rosè, called the arrogant frog, hee hee


 Then was Carolyn’s peppered roast beef and fennel salad:

Perfectly roasted roast beef with a crust of crushed Szechuan and black peppers served with a creamy fennel salad.

Now it was my turn, so off into the kitchen again!

Putting together the Bouillabaisse

First the vegetables are sautéed in olive oil, then comes the stock and the tinned tomatoes, the bouquet garni and the saffron that has been disolved in a little fish soup.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to come to a simmer and then starting with the fish that take the longest to cook,

 put each in turn into the soup one after the other ending with the Dublin bay prawns.

Then put the potatoes on top to warm through.

Carefully remove the fish to a serving platter and pour over a little of the hot soup and cover until ready to bring to the table.


First came the rich fish soup poured over croutons covered in a spicy, thick rouille.

Next, the fish, that had been poached in the fish soup, accompanied with the saffron potatoes and baguette and aioli.

We drank a nice pic-poule with the meal

The final was a rhubarb symphony, a firework of tastes, a wonderful finale to a fantastic meal.

Kalle’s dessert (s)

A rhubarb soup
Poached rhubarb crumble
Rhubarb ice
A lime/yoghurt cream
A tuilé biscuit

We had, had as usual, eaten far too much, but as normal, had a smashing evening, good food, good drink, fantastic chat and the most wonderful company!