Updated December 15 2023
If you ‘re looking for an easy way to cook mouth-watering meals, you’ve come to the right place. I love cooking but have no patience, and I’m bone lazy. That doesn’t mean I can’t cook, it means I cheat!
It all began at a dinner party, when my best mate Reg and I made a bet with our women that we could cook just as well as they could. We worked our way through a cordon-bleu cooking course, then a seafood and a pastry cooking course. The women were the winners in this deal, and I suspect they knew that from the beginning.
With Cordon-bleu, you create everything from scratch. You don’t buy pastry, you make it and bake it. For a dinner party, my best mate would make the fish stock from fish heads and carrots and celery and parsley and seasoning and boil the lot down very slowly all day long until there was almost nothing left. Then he’d start cooking.
That wasn’t for me. I’d buy my stock in packets and the marinara mix from the local shop, not from the fish markets. So I cheat, but who can tell the difference? My mate is a fabulous chef, and I love eating at his place, but let’s talk about how to cheat without anyone noticing.
DEAD-SIMPLE FISH STEW
The first time I had Bouillabaisse in a restaurant, I was underwhelmed. Same thing the first time I cooked it. It looks so good, those muscle shells in that red-orange liquid.
Looks are important in cooking, and flavour more so. The original Bouillabaisse is actually a soup you eat with bread, which explains the lack of authority. Here’s how you turn it into a stew that serves 3 – 4. The key ingredients here are the seafood, the stock and the pesto. Change the rest of the ingredients to your liking.
Solid ingredients
- 250g prawns – current favourites: Karumba, frozen, peeled
- 200g of calamari rings
- 500g Boston Bay Mussels, they’re cooked, just need warming up
- 1 globe of fennel, cut into 8 wedges
- 3 – 4 thick shallots, chopped into 2 cm lengths
- 1 – 2 cloves garlic, chopped, or garlic paste
- small handful of snow peas or sugar snaps
- 1 red capsicum or chili pepper
Liquid additions
- 2/3 tin of crushed tomatoes
- 3 -4 tbsps of green pesto (leggo’s is my fave)
- The liquid from the Boston Bay mussels (better than commercial fish stock)
- Glass of white wine or two – yes, you can have one as well
- teaspoonful of dried fennel seeds, crushed
- 1 tsp Dried Dill
- 1/3 tsp chilli flakes (Masterfoods)
- Seasoning
- Fresh parsley, finely chopped
20 – 30 minute prep / cooking:
Thaw out the prawns – 8 hours in the fridge is best, but 40 mins on the bench works OK. make sure to discard excess waterChop fennel and capsicum into chunks and fry in olive oil or roast in the oven for 25 mins.
0.00 Chop up the shallots and destring snow peas / sugar snaps
0.05 If you’re serving pasta or rice with this dish, get that process going
0.15 Put the shallots into a big fry pan and fry them gently in olive oil for 5 mins
0.20 Add the fennel and capsicum chunks to the pan, then add clamari and the garlic.
0.23 add prawns to the pan, fry for a few mins, then add crushed tomatoes, pesto and the liquid from the Boston Bay mussels. Combine and simmer gently.
0.25 add fennel seeds, dill, chilli flakes and seasoning – gently – taste as you go; add snow peas / sugar snaps and white wine if needed, combine
0. 27. Add chopped or dried parsely and some of the the mussels (keep the remainder warm in the oven). Don’t stir or you’ll spoil the look of the dish. Suit yourself with the amount of liquid but don’t add too much. Taste the stew. If it doesn’t have enough flavour, add more seasoning, maybe more chili but we just want a hint of heat. You can be more liberal with pesto – sometimes I use most of a jar.
There you go!
What do you have with it?
Steamed beans or asparagus, if you fancy. Rice or pasta, or crusty bread if you prefer.
Kim