Cooking bouillabaisse

I have hardly any posts on cooking, but I assure my readers I can help around the kitchen.

This was what we were cooking in the afternoon - fish soup. [All photos taken by iPhone]

First, I chopped up carrots, celery and onions (sniff sniff), then fried them with olive oil in a large pot.

We marinated the fish in white wine, and the prawns in XO sauce.

We had a problem with shrinking scallops the last time we cooked this dish. So this time, we seared the scallops (to lock in their juices) then removed them from the pot, to be added when everything else was cooked.

Separately, we soaked the clams in salt water to remove the fishy smell. Then we steamed them. Only the fresh ones open up, and those are the ones that make it to our soup.

We added fish, and then prawns to the main pot.

We added two cartons of stock.

Final product!

Serve with baked garlic bread (olive oil and garlic only - no butter! Must be healthy).

Tip: To have really finely-sliced bread, put the baguettes in the freezer so they’re firm when you cut them.

Cooking tips and recipe courtesy of my Cordon Bleu-trained grandaunt :)