L’Ambiance des Halles is my fishmonger. In addition to selling fresh fish and seafood, they have a shellfish bar, small restaurant and seafood platters for take away. Difficult to please when it comes to fish, I usually don’t bother with the prepared food on offer, preferring to handle the preparation myself, which is wise.
However today, in honor of the Ascension holiday, L’Ambiance was preparing Bouillabaisse for take away and I thought, what the heck, I’m bored with doing “freezer”, so I ordered two portions for Jade and myself, but the owner refused payment. So nice. I had fallen off the wagon anyway by buying and freezing two beautiful pork carbonades/grillades for a future barbecue. I’m not made of iron.
The bouillabaisse fish broth packaged separately from the fish pieces, was made with vive (weever), congre (eel), chapon (scorpionfish), grondin (gurnet), rougets barbet (mullet); very thick and rich. Funny, we didn’t taste any garlic like in the bouillabaisse of Marseilles. Hello! Garlic and bay leaf, people! I think is was a Burgundy recipe, maybe.
The pieces of fish were correct; lieu jaune (pollack), joues de lotte (monkfish), blanc de seiche (cuttlefish) and langouste (crayfish). The fish pieces were cooked separately, not in the broth, but perfectly cooked. I imagine in order to sell individual servings, making sure each client gets a piece of each type of fish, it wasn’t practical to cook the fish in the broth. So I steamed a few mussels and clams in the broth until open and tossed in some cooked gambas to warm, added the rest of the fish and warmed all together. L’Ambiance’s fish soup was “correct” and certainly filling.
yummm
You have some fabulous recipes up your sleeve and some beautiful dishes to match them. Enjoyed this entry.
Thank you Eat on.
Glorious, and Jades beautiful young hands holding the bowl is a precious shot.. c
Thank you c.
Refused payment? Wow, that’s certainly a gift I’d love to receive. I love that beautiful last photograph.. so pretty!! It looks like a cookbook cover I think!
Thank you Smidge. Very nice guy at L’Ambiance.
I didn’t realize there were local differences in bouillabaisse throughout France. I do know that the best I ever had was in a restaurant on the south coast of France. It looked a lot like yours when it arrived at the table – a bowl loaded with fish (that I selected before it was cooked) and the broth was on the side along with bread for mopping up every last drop.
Fabulous photos as always.
Thank you. I don’t think that every region makes bouillabaisse, per se, though everyone has their version of fish soup.
What a fabulous looking dish – you could frame it.
Thank you sus.
Is that my portion that Jade is offereing ? If so YES please. But no garlic…. strange
I wasn’t really surprised, L’Ambiance is a wonderful fish market but I’ve never been happy with the restaurant end of things. However, they seem to be doing great business all around, so good for them.
How fantastic – that’s something that you don’t find in England, though I’m sure I could get the individual fish. I think I’d want to say hello to some garlic in mine 😉
And hello to some bay leaf Dog!
That too – I rarely leaf home without one 😉
What’s good enough for the Marseillaises, is good enough for me.
Yummy!! LOVE these types of dishes. -Helen
Thank you Helen. Me too 🙂 But with bay leaf and garlic.
What a beautiful dish!
Thank you Tessa.
I enjoy your posts very much so nominated you for The One Lovely Blog Award. If interested, please visit my site at http://susartandfood.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/one-lovely-blog-award/. Have a great day!
Thank you for nominating me Susan.
They look great! That fish is beautiful, Rosemary. I’m jealous of your fishmonger. Swap them for my skillet?
You should just mail the skillet to me. It’s the Christian thing to do 🙂
Good thing I’m an atheist then isn’t it?
I knew it 🙂
The shot of the fresh fish reminds me why I love that country so much. Beautiful.
Best,
Conor
ps: NO WordPress, don’t ” Notify me of follow-up comments via email.”
Thank you Conor. Although we have two fish stalls in the market, L’Ambiance, across the street seems to have a better selection and fresher fish.
Ah, the butter/olive oil + garlic divide rears its head again! I hope that is some spicy, garlicky aioli in the background next to the toasted bread!
But I have to say that what the French consider “take-away” blows everything else out of the water. What an amazing meal!
I know. When we think of takeaway it’s more like fast food but takeaway here is just an extension of the traiteur system.
Yes, that is aioli. The croutons and aioli came with.
Stunning. Every single picture just made me that much hungrier!
Wow look at those seafood! I am so drooling now.
Gorgeous dish!
Reblogged this on The DelGrosso Food Blog and commented:
As I plan my Integrale recipe, I want to share with you a wonderful post by Cooking in Sens. This brilliant recipe is matched with wonderful photos and well-crafted writing. I hope you enjoy this wonderfuly delicious bouillabaisse! I know I will…