Name: Catalan Fish Stew (Bouillinade)
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 300 g raw prawns or mussels, or a mixture of both (optional); 500 g small potatoes in their skins, thickly sliced; 4-5 tbsp olive oil; salt, pepper; 1 kilo assorted fish, cleaned and cut into thick slices; 1 litre fish stock, or 750 ml water and 250 g white wine; 3 ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped or 3 tbsp tinned chopped tomatoes; freshly chopped parsley; 2 fresh green or red chillies, seeds removed and chopped; ½ tsp fennel seeds; ½ tsp dried or fresh thyme leaves; 3-4 bay leaves; 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped; 2 medium onions, finely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Sud de France

By Caroline Conran

Published 2012

About

This is the fish stew you will encounter in fishing villages such as Matisse’s favourite, Collioure, close to the Spanish border. Once a fisherman’s dish, often cooked on board the boats, it is also known as suquet. It should be clean and simple and will include any local fish such as larger rock fish, including weaver and blennies, monkfish, gurnard, John Dory, sea bream and if it is available, rascasse – scorpion fish. You can add prawns or mussels if you like. It is a parti