Bouillabaisse

A dish comprising fish boiled with herbs, which is traditionally associated with the Provence region, especially Marseilles, although it has long bee enjoyed further afield.. The word is a contraction of two verbs, bouillir  (to boil) and abaisser to reduce), and in fact bouillabaisse is more a method of rapid cooking than an actual recipe; there are as many 'authentic' bouillabaisses as there are ways of combining fish.

Bouillabaisse was originally cooked on the beach by fishermen, who used a large cauldron over a wood fire to cook the fish that was least suitable for marklet, such as rascasse (scorpion fish rockfish) - essential for an authentic bouillabaisse and hardly ever eaten otherwise.  Shelfish are added, including squill fish, mussels, and small crabs (lobster is a city dweller's refinement).   The dish is flavoured with olive oil, spices, including pepper and saffron, and dried orange peel.

Provencal cuisine offers several variations on the bouillabaisse soup.  At Martigues, where it is usual to serve the soup with potatoes (cooked separately), there is also a black bouillabaisse, containing cuttlefish and their ink. Sardine and cod bouillabaisses are also characteristic of the region, as are bourride and revesset, (both Provencal fish soups).  White wine is sometimes added to the liquid.

Other French coastal regions have their own local methods of preparing fish soups: bouillinada from Roussillon, cotriade from Brittany, chaudree from Charentes (which gave rise to the American chowder), marmite from Dieppe, Flemish waterzooi, and ttoro, on the Basque region.

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