Recipe for a longer life #1: Bouillabaisse

One thing you should learn to cook is bouillabaisse, a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille, or further back in time to ancient Greece, or somewhere near the sea in what became Italy.

Bouillabaisse is much more than food: it’s a whole world you are immersing yourself in. A vital world: of history, texture, flavour, colour, scent and imagination. It’s the very essence of the Mediterranean.

Cooking bouillabaisse expands my life. This is despite the past and the future tending to concentrate into where I am now, with the cool handle of a knife in my hand, living intensively with my senses as I prepare and cook.  

Chop up fennel, leeks, onions and celery and allow to soften in olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Then add a couple of sprigs of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, a pinch of saffron, half a chilli, and a good pile of good-quality chopped tomatoes. You can add the feathery tops of the fennel bulb if you want, or a short slurp of Pernod, along with fish stock. Hopefully, you’ve made this yourself from fish bones sometime in the past. Drop in a few leaves of tarragon perhaps, and maybe some orange peel and a little orange juice. It’s authentic to be a little inventive.

Sometimes I pour in a little sparkling wine from my glass. Season well with salt and pepper, add water to make a stew and simmer away for an hour or so. Then add the fish. If you don’t have scorpion fish, conger eel, and gurnard, use other varieties, as long as they are firm. Add some prawns, some mussels and some cockles if you have them, and voilà.

I am often bewitched by the colours and the fragrances as I stir.

Taste the stock. You might have to remove the seafood and reduce the liquid until it sings.

Image credit: N Wong/flickr