French Fish Soup with Rouille

Ingredients

• 300 g mussels (e.g., clams or Venus clams)
• Salt
• 1 onion
• 1 stalk Celery
• 1 bulb fennel
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp Noilly Prat
• 800 ml fish stock
• 4 Spring Onions
• 150 g cocktail tomatoes
• 1 Garlic clove
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 tsp saffron powder
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 8 shrimp (peeled, deveined)
• 500 g fish fillet (skinless; e.g., redfish, sole, black cod, sea bream…)
• 1 tsp saffron powder
• 1 Garlic clove
• 200 g crème fraîche
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• 8 baguette slices
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. 1.

   Brush mussels thoroughly under running cold water. Remove open shells; cook closed ones in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes until they open, then discard any still closed. Drain through a sieve, let them drip and separate the meat from the shells.

2. 2.

   Peel and dice onion finely. Trim and wash celery and fennel, slice into rounds or strips. Heat oil in a pot and sauté prepared vegetables. Deglaze with Noilly Prat and add stock. Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. Trim spring onions, wash and cut diagonally into rings. Quarter tomatoes. Mince garlic. Shake thyme dry. Add saffron and fennel seeds to the soup and bring back to a boil.

3. 3.

   Rinse shrimp cold and cube fish fillets. Add both to the soup with mussel meat and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove thyme.

4. 4.

   For rouille mix saffron with warm broth. Mince garlic. Combine both with crème fraîche and olive oil; season with salt. Bake baguette slices in oven until golden yellow, drizzle with oil and spread rouille on them. Serve soup in bowls with baguette slices.