Bloody Mary Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse may sound fancy, but at its heart it is a simple fish soup dressed up with various spices and aromatics. We decided to go spicy instead of herbaceous when we added our Bloody Mary Mix to this dish, and it made a soup that was warm and cozy, as well as brimming with briny seafood flavors.
You can buy prepared fish stock in better grocery stores but we recommend making your own stock if possible. It has a hearty, satisfying-to-the-bones flavor that commercial stocks don’t necessarily capture, and you won’t really save any time since you’ll still need to let the stock simmer with aromatics and seasonings in order to develop the full flavor.
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 large leek, cleaned and chopped
1 Tablespoon California Granulated Garlic
6 Tablespoons Bloody Mary Mix
2 cups canned diced tomatoes
2 1/2 quarts water
1/2 teaspoon Saffron, crumbled
1 Tablespoon Coarse Sea Salt
3-4 pounds fish heads, bones, trimmings, shrimp shells
1 pound peeled shrimp, deveined with tails on
1 pound cod, halibut, or other flaky white fish, cut into chunks
1 pound mussels, debearded
Crusty bread to serve
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot or stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion and leek and cook until soft and turning translucent.
2. Stir in California Granulated Garlic and Bloody Mary Mix and stir for a minute, to allow the flavors to bloom.
3. Stir in tomatoes, water, Saffron, and Coarse Sea Salt. Stir to remove any residue sticking to the bottom of the stock pot, then add fish heads, bones, and shrimp shells.
4. Bring fish stock to a simmer, then reduce the heat so the broth cooks at a slow bubble, without boiling. Cook for 30 minutes.
5. Strain the fish stock into a large bowl or pot. Discard the solids, and return the strained stock to the stove.
