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 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 c
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.
The first time I had Bouillabaisse in a restaurant, it left me cold. Same thing the first time I cooked it. It looks so good, those muscle shells in that red-orange liquid.
(picture from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2775/seafood+bouillabaisse)
Looks are important in cooking but 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 into a stew that serves 3 - 4:
Solid ingredients
3/4 kilo of marinara mix – make sure it’s good quality and fresh
3 spring onions – use both the heads and the green bits chopped up
1 globe of fennel, cut into 8 wedges – fennel and seafood love each other
1 - 2 cloves garlic, chopped –suit yourself
1 – 2 zucchini, sliced – it’s more Mediterranean than carrots and celery
1 sweet chili pepper broad strips – the longish red kind
Liquid additions
2/3 tin of diced tomatoes
Medium packet of
Glass of white wine or two – yes, you can have one as well
Sacla capsicum/eggplant pasta sauce – the secret ingredient
Seasoning, herbs and spices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
teaspoonful of dried fennel seeds
½ teaspoon of chilli flakes (Masterfoods)
Dried Dill
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
20 minute cooking:
1. Chop the onions, garlic, fennel and fry in olive oil in a big frypan or casserole dish. Add the zucchini and pepper once the onions are tamed (5-6 mins), and cook for a few more minutes. Don’t worry, time isn’t that critical here – just make sure you don’t burn anything, keep it just above medium heat, add oil when needed.
2. Turn the heat down to simmer, add tomatoes, fish stock and a little white wine (keep some for adding later to get the right amount of liquid). Add about half the little jar of past sauce. If you can’t get the capsicum/eggplant sauce, use standard green pesto (Not ideal but it’ll get you out of a jam). Easy on garlic and tomatoes – we don’t want either one to take over the dish!
3. You should be about 15 – 20 mins into it by the time you add the marinara mix, seasoning, herbs and spices. Hold the parsley – that goes in a couple of minutes from the end. We want that green colour to freshen up all that orange/red. Stir the marinara pieces into the mix and add more wine if needed. Suit yourself with the amount of liquid but it should not be too thick. Taste the stew.
4. If it doesn’t have enough flavour, add more seasoning (salt & pepper), maybe more chili but we only want a hint of heat. You can be more liberal adding pasta sauce – sometimes you need the whole jar. Then add the parsley when the fish is cooked (5 mins), stir it in but leave some on top for show.
There you go!
What do you have with it?
Steamed beans or asparagus, if you fancy. I prefer Basmati rice or pasta. Basmati is a very fluffy rice if you cook it for 17 minutes on a fairly high boil, then give it a shot of cold water in a colander and drain it.
If you haven’t done much cooking, you can cook the rice first and just warm it up in a slow oven while you cook the stew.
There are more recipe sites on the web than I’ve had hot dinners. Here’s one site that’s different: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/coq-au-vin/
I suspect Ree Drummond is more marketing guru than country girl but who cares? She’s a great photographer as well so her recipes are step by step, picture by clear picture tutorials ideal for folks learning to cook.