Bourride is a Provencal dish, let’s say the cousin of bouillabaisse. It’s originally made out of monkfish. In this version, I added shrimps and clams and fennel in the broth. I love the combination of fennel and fish/seafood. It’s a light and flavorful dish that can be enjoyed all year round. Not being difficult to make, it can also be prepared in advance, just get the broth with the vegetables ready the night before and you can only cook the fish the day you are consuming it. That is a big convenience.

These days I have not been a big fish and seafood eater, but once in a while if I make an ocean dish, it needs to be special. Bourride is delicious and light, especially if you don’t add too much aioli.

Bourride is served with aioli. Aioli is used in all Mediterranean basin such as Provence, Spain and Northern Italy. It’s usually a condiment made out of garlic and oil, sometimes an egg is added but for purists, egg is to be avoided.

Ingredients

For the soup

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 fennel, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced (1/2 inch pieces)
• 1 leek (the white part), sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbs parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1.5 lb monkfish, cut in 5 cm pieces
• about 15 shrimps, peeled and deveined
• about 15 clams

For the aioli

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 yolk
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 3.4 oz (or 100 ml) vegetable oil
• 3.4 oz (or 100 ml) olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the aioli

In a bowl, or mortar crush garlic, add yolk and mustard then add slowly vegetable oil. Add olive oil and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the bourride

Heat olive oil in a deep pot. Add cut vegetables and let them sweat for about t0 min until they get soft. Add garlic, parsley and wine. Stir well, then add broth. Let it cook for about 20 min until the vegetables are well cooked. Mash roughly with a potato masher. Remove about 1 laddle of broth and set aside.

Cook monkfish in a little oil on all sides, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Add monkfish to broth, add shrimps and clams. Cover and cook at medium temperature until the clams open.

When fish is cooked, mix 3-4 tbs aioli with the left aside broth and mix well. Add to the fish/broth mixture. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot with toasted bread or as is.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2016/07/a-different-kind-of-bourride-bourride-of-monkfish-clams-and-shrimps/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2015/07/razor-clams-are-back-baked-razor-clams-stuffed-with-mixed-herbs-and-lemon-zest/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=razor-clams-are-back-baked-razor-clams-stuffed-with-mixed-herbs-and-lemon-zest http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2015/07/razor-clams-are-back-baked-razor-clams-stuffed-with-mixed-herbs-and-lemon-zest/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2015 02:55:02 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=17048 Les couteaux sont de retour – Couteaux farcis aux herbes et zestes de citron

These razor clams remind me of my childhood with my grandmother on a beach on the Adriatic. We used to find those inside the sand and pick them to bring home. It’s been so hard to find them in the stores in the US, and even in Europe. I was reading an article saying that they were no longer part of the culinary world and that the chefs stopped serving them in restaurants for years. The good thing is that, they have decided to introduce them back into their menus and you can now find them in the stores.

The ones you find in Italy or France are smaller, not as thick and longer, they look like a knife. Actually the literal translation of “couteau” in French means knife. These razor clams being so big, they need to be cleaned a bit different than the ones you find in Europe. Those come from the Pacific North West so maybe that’s another type of razor clam.

Unfortunately those clams have been previously frozen, the good thing is that it was easy to open them. To clean them you have to remove the digestive system which is the dark part. Cut it off with scissors and it’s done.

Ingredients for 2

• 6 razor clams
• 1 spring shallot
• 1.2 cup parsley
• 3 garlic cloves
• olive oil
• zest of one lemon
• chili flakes (optional)
• salt and pepper
• lemon oil for drizzling

Preparation

For the herb mixture

In a blender, mix all ingredients except lemon zest. The mixture needs to be smooth, but not like a paste, you need some texture

For the clams

If using frozen ones, open them and wash them well. Clean them removing the digestive system, rinse and pat dry. Place clams back on their shell.

Preheat oven at 370 F. Add herb mixture on top of clams and place in oven for about 15 min or less, until clams are cooked but not too hard. Remove from oven and drizzle with olive oil

Sorry about two cauliflower recipes in a row, I was convinced I used the nine of them I had in my case, then I found this one, that needed to be consumed or would go bad. Since I never throw away food (or at least I try), my father would always tell me when I was growing up, “You cannot throw away food, there are too many people starving in the world”, so now I do feel guilty to throw away anything. When you think about it, in our Western world, people die because they eat too much, in some other parts of the world, people die because they have nothing to eat. How unfair and absurd is that?

I think cauliflower is an amazing vegetable, and its use is so versatile…I was trying to find a way to combine it with seafood, and this cappuccino perfectly achieved what I had in mind, associating two complementing and opposite textures, the creaminess of the cauliflower with chewiness of the clams. That was a lovely combination, especially with the delicate touch of saffron (which I adore with seafood).

Now you might wonder why this is called cappuccino, since there is no coffee in it, and certainly cannot have this for breakfast. The cauliflower being cooked in milk and the foam used to top off the soup, the whole thing served in a cappuccino cup, it definitely resembles a savory version of the traditional and very famous coffee drink.

It’s a nice festive and delicious soup, so when you have no inspiration for cauliflower, try this soup, it’s such a treat.

Ingredients for 4-5

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut
• 1/2 leek, white part
• 1 cauliflower
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• milk (enough to cover the vegetables)
• 1 dose of saffron
• 16-20 clams
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil add leek, potatoes and cauliflower and cook vegetables stirring for about 10 minutes. Add broth, milk and saffron, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and cook at medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and keep about 1/2 cup of the milk aside. Let it cool.

In another pot, heat olive oil and clams. Adjust with salt and pepper, and let the clams open. When the clams are open, remove from heat and keep warm.

Using a hand blender blend vegetables into a thin puree. Pass through a sieve to obtain a creamy and smooth texture. If the consistency is too thick, add a little broth.

To make foam, place cooled milk (set aside) in a small pot and heat it up without boiling it. Whisk gradually milk to make it foam. When obtained desired and thick foam. Pour soup on cappuccino cups, add 2 tbs foam on each cup and place 4 clams on top. Decorate with saffron threads and chives. Serve hot.