Making things right
and a recipe for a warming Mediterranean seafood soup with rouille
In cooking, as with any science, there are rules of nature that bear following.
The rules usually based on chemistry. Eggs will curdle in a sauce if you cook them over high heat. Brown sugar becomes hard if not kept in an airtight container. Kneading dough forms gluten, essential for an excellent loaf of bread. You can freeze eggs but not milk. And salting your water while cooking pasta really is a good idea.
But unless you’ve gone to culinary school or spent time in a professional kitchen, the things we learn in the kitchen come over time, slowly and with trial and error. Most often, they come from our childhood kitchens. The “right” way to do something may be nothing more than a preference or a habit that our cooking parents taught us, and that we’ve made our own.
Messing around with favourite dishes
Things become particularly heated when it comes to cult favourites. Don’t ask two Romans for the “right” way to make bucatini all'amatriciana. The debate could go on for hours about whether or not pancetta is an acceptable substitute for guanciale, if onions should be used, whether to cook the sugo with white wine. You’ll never get consensus. Substitute paella, chicken adobo, shepherd’s pie for the pasta, throw the gauntlet down between two aficionados and watch the dishes fly.
But cooking - and food itself - is a most generous teacher. With an open mind and a curious palate, even the most seasoned cook can learn something new - no matter if you are an amateur in your home kitchen or a professional. With curiosity comes flexibility.
Enter Jacques Pepin and Julia Child.
Experience is the best teacher.
Julius Caesar, De Bello Civilli
Separately Jacques and Julia are culinary icons. Together, they had a beautiful friendship of mutual love, respect, shared passions, and yes, heated debates. Watch any episode of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, the well-loved and iconic PBS series that first ran in 1999, and you see the intense curiosity and interest in what each has to teach the other. After a lifetime of cooking and creating, they demonstrate in their uniquely warm and approachable way that cooking is a journey, never a final destination.
The companion cookbook is one of my favourite gifts from my husband, and my signed first edition holds special pride of place on my shelf. Reading it is like eavesdropping on a conversation between two best friends, who invite you to pull up a seat to the table. Always instructive, interesting and with variations to try for every dish, it’s a book that holds infinitely more than a collection of recipes. The reader is invited to come along for the fun, and play in the kitchen.
More than that, it’s a reminder that an original recipe is like a pebble. Dropping it into a pond creates ripples worth exploring. And while every variation may not be to your liking, it may be a welcome reminder that there are many ways to be right in the kitchen.
Mediterranean seafood soup with rouille
from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home
serves 6-8
This recipe may look a little daunting at first, with its long list of ingredients and many steps. But just take 10 minutes to watch this video of Jacques and Julia making the soup, and you’ll see that at its heart, this is an easy, infinitely flexible recipe. More of this, less of that, potatoes instead of fish: Jacques and Julia always remind us that there is no one right way, but the way that works best for you.
For the soup
1½ pounds fish fillets, a mixture of two or three different types of fish (you may skin them if you wish)
1½ pounds small clams (little necks or cherry stones)
½ pound scallops
3 tablespoons olive oil
1½ cups chopped onions
1 cup thinly sliced scallions, white and green parts
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 cups fresh or canned tomatoes, chopped into chunks (reserve any juices and no need to seed)
1 cup white wine
4 cups fish stock
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon saffron threads
1½ tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
For the rouille
1 slice firm homestyle white bread
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 small potato, peeled, cooked and cut into quarters
¼ cup chopped roasted red peppers from a jar
¼ cup broth from the soup base
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne
1 cup olive oil
For the croutons
1 baguette, sliced and toasted
Make the soup base
Cut the fish into even chunks about an inch thick. Scrub the clams and rinse both the clams and the scallops to remove any sand.
In a large stock pot or sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, scallions and garlic and cook until soft, about five minutes.
Add the tomatoes and their juices, wine and fish stock, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer briskly for 10 to 15 minutes, with the pot partially covered.
Make the rouille
While the soup is simmering, make the rouille.
Tear the bread slice into pieces and put the pieces in a food processor with the minced garlic and potato. Process until very finally chopped.
Add the red peppers, ¼ cup of broth from the soup base, and season lightly with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Process until completely smooth.
With the machine running, pour in the olive oil in a slow steady stream, taking about half a minute or more so that an emulsion forms. Process until completely smooth; taste and adjust seasoning. Place the rouille in a small bowl and set aside.
Continue with the soup
Bring the soup base to a boil and add the clams and the saffron. Cook for about two minutes. Add the fish and scallops, return to a gentle boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes just until the fish pieces are cooked through and opaque and all the clams have opened. Stir in the tarragon, taste and adjust the seasonings for the final time.
To serve
Spoon some rouille on half the croutons. Ladle the soup into large soup bowls and serve the croutons beside or on top of the soup, with the extra croutons and rouille alongside.