The Bouillabaisse Party

This is the recipe for fish soup that my friend J. made for our bookclub end-of-year potluck party, which is never really 'potluck' because J. organizes all the food in advance.
J. writes..... "I got out all my bouillabaisse recipes and used what I liked best. It is closest to Ina Garten's recipe. I did add cayenne...you might want to omit it if you don't like any heat in the soup. Also her recipe called for potatoes ( 2 cups diced) and mussels ( 2 dozen cleaned) which I omitted. She suggested making toasted baguette slices that have been rubbed with garlic, and placing them in the bottom of each bowl, then ladling the soup over top."

Seafood Stew from Barefoot in Paris, Easy French Food You can Make at Home by Ina Garten (with a few changes)

3 TBSP olive oil
1 ½ cups chopped yellow onions ( 2 small)
2 carrots, peeled and cut roughly in pieces
3 stalks celery chopped
2 cups chopped fennel ( 1 large bulb)
2 cups white wine ( I used New Zealand Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc)
1, 28 oz, tin plum tomatoes chopped with juice
7 cups of stock (fish or chicken or a combo)
1 small tin tomato paste
1 TBSP chopped garlic ( 3 cloves)
1 tsp saffron threads
½ pound , deveined , peeled raw shrimp
1 lb halibut cut in 1” pieces
½ lb sea bass cut in 1”pieces
1, 8 oz lobster tail uncooked, cut in 1” pieces
3 TBSP Pernod
1 long strip of orange rind, pith removed
1 tsp grated orange zest
2 bay leaves
1½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp cayenne powder

You can make this part a day ahead , or earlier in the day to simplify preparation at the last minute:

Heat oil in large pot, add onions, carrots, celery, fennel and sauté over medium low heat for 15”, until the onions begin to brown. Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the chopped tomatoes and their juice, garlic, saffron, thyme, cayenne, bay leaves, long strip of orange peel, stock and tomato paste, bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaves and strip of orange peel. You can keep the soup in the fridge overnight /or for several hours and reheat just before serving.

Before serving:

Bring soup to a boil and add seafood and fish. Bring back to the boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the Pernod and orange zest. As a meal probably serves about 6, with smaller servings could probably serve 12.

Editorial Notes: Our bookclub potlucks always revolve around the place/nation about which the book we have read was written. In this case, we read a novel about the Guernsey Islands, where seafood plays a big role in the cuisine. http://www.goodfoodguernsey.com/

Just as in the fondue, in which you need a bit of Kirsch to make it taste authentic, in this recipe, you need a little bit of vile-yellow-coloured Pernod to add that 'je ne sais quoi' to the fish stew.