Bastille day feast

Bouillabaisse is a traditional french seafood stew, originating from Marseille.  I once ate this when I traveled through France with my family, at a little beachside restaurant in Hyeres.  Eating this in France however, is very different to how I would serve it at home.  Normally the broth is served with toasts smothered in rouille and the seafood as a second course but I just have to tweak recipes a little, can't help it.  My version of rouille is also tweaked, satisfying my love of garlic and all things red!

Serves 2-4

1 leek, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 potatoes, diced
1 tsp fennel seeds
wineglass of white wine..chardonnay
2 bay leaf

Peel of 1/2 an orange, remove all pith

500ml fish stock
1 400g can crushed tomatoes in juice
1 tbsp raw sugar
a pinch of saffron
500g hapuku fillet, or other firm white fish
12 greenlip mussels, scrubbed and beards removed
15-20 green prawns

une baguette

Rouille;
4 tbsp mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 roast capsicum, skins removed, deseeded or about 1/2 jar of roasted red peppers
2 tsp smoked paprika
sea salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pan then add leek, carrot and garlic and saute over a medium heat til beautiful and soft.  Add potatoes and fennel seeds and fry for a couple of minutes.  Splash in the wine, stirring to bring everything together, simmer for a couple of minutes.  Add bay leaves, fish stock, tomatoes, sugar and saffron. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile make rouille.  Basically chuck everything into a blender until smooth.
Add mussels to soup and cook until open, discarding any that haven't opened.  Add fish, prawns and turn off heat, allowing the residual heat to cook the fish and prawns.

Serve the soup in bowls with rouille spooned on top of toasted slices of baguette.

Spiced kumara soup with crisp fried ginger

3 med size purple kumara, cut into large chunks
600ml chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, toasted then ground
1 bay leaf
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
300ml coconut cream
handful fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
5cm piece ginger, julienned
frying oil, ricebran, olive or peanut


Gently fry onions and garlic in a little olive oil until softened.  Add spices and bay leaf and stir until fragrant.  Add kumara and stock then bring to the boil.  Simmer for minutes or until kumara is cooked.  Puree in a blender adding coconut cream to thin a little.
To crisp fry ginger, heat oil until medium hot and looks like its swirling, add ginger and fry until crisp and golden.  This happens very fast so be careful not to burn.

Top soup with ginger and serve with crusty bread and butter.