Another Method for Cooking the Fish in a Bouillabaisse

Poaching fish fillets, especially at the last minute, can leave you scurrying around the kitchen while trying to look calm in front of your guests. Also, skin-on fillets curl when you poach them (because the skin contracts), and poached fish skin doesn’t taste particularly good anyway. If I’m throwing a dinner party or lunch party, or if I just want to eat the fillets with the skin on, I season the fillets and sauté them skin-side down in olive oil in a nonstick pan over very high heat for about 30 seconds while pressing down on them with a spatula to keep them from curling. Before I begin to sauté, I cover a sheet pan with ice cubes and set another sheet pan on top. I rub the top sheet pan with olive oil. As soon as the fillets are sautéed I place them, skin-side down, on the cold sheet pan so they immediately stop cooking. When the fillets have chilled, I turn them over, so the skin is facing up, and refrigerate them. (If I have fillets of varying thicknesses, I arrange them on separate sheet pans.) Shortly before I’m ready to serve, I preheat the oven to 400°F[200°C/gas mark 6] and bake the fillets for 3 to 8 minutes, depending on their thickness. This way, I can be dealing with the broth while the fish is cooking and then just scoop the fillets off the sheet pan and arrange them in the soup plates. This method makes it easy to sort the various kinds of fillets ahead of time and leaves your fillets with the crispy, decorative skin still on.