Robin's Reports

THE LADY'S BOUILLABAISSE from
Paula Deen on Food Network

Our day started at 6:30am with hooking up the boat and heading down the road only to u-turn back for home because the clouds threatened early thunderstorms.

By 8:30, we were back on our way out, now to the market to find our ingredients for Paula Deen's Seafood dish - The Lady's Bouillabaisse. We saw it on her show (Food Network) and it reairs on July 30th if you want to see her make it.
A trip to the Seafood Market really should count as a homeschooling field trip because I have to answer dozens of questions about the animals we see there.

For our dish, we needed 4 Blue Crabs. They come LIVE, so watch out!

Kids, don't play with your food!!

We also picked up a pound of white Canaveral shrimp and the recipe calls for 1 pound of mussels but we choose pasta clams since they're my favorite. Our fish monger gave us extra clams incase some didn't open up. THROW AWAY the ones that don't open up! We also thawed out a pack of our snapper caught earlier in the month. We're substituting this for 2 lbs grouper.

This was a fun day for Jack and I. He loves to cook and I'm a good assistant. We put on some Smooth Jazz and flirt around the kitchen. We even had time for a slow dance between one of the steamings. Here he is chopping up the snapper into 1 inch pieces while the blue crab are being boiled. My job is to boil 2 cups of water in a big pot and steam the clams (6-8 min) or until they open.

When the crab are done cooking, you must cut into halves, remove the top shell and remove the poo & lungs. A quick few minutes and the job is done. Rinse to remove shells or poo.

Through the steam, you can barely see my clams are opening up.

Jack finishes up the crab work and I'm off to make the Bouillabaisse .

Heat the oil in a large pot, add the garlic, onions, tomatoes, fennel, saffron, salt and pepper. Add the mussel/clam broth to the pot and 2 tablespoons of butter (we use Smart Balance). Add the 2.5 c boiling water and clam juice.

Bring to a rolling boil, add the crabs and fish, and continue to boil for 6-8 minutes. (keep the lid on)

Add the mussels/ clams along with the shrimp (left unpeeled), and boil for an additional 5 minutes w/ lid on.

Make some garlic bread & broil it. Serve the bouillabaisse in a large individual bowl lined with the bread; pile in the seafood and ladle the broth over it. Paula adds more butter at this point, but we didn't.

Next, call the kids and let them dig in. This is my seafood boy. He loves everything we love to eat.

This one is too young to appreciate seafood, but he is learning. He loves the fish & shrimp & BREAD.

As you can see from the first picture, I got large glasses and filled them with lemonade. My sister went last weekend to Paula's restaurant and she said Paula makes great lemonade too.

Ingredients in the Bouillabaisse sauce:
1/3 c EVOO
1 1/2 Tbl chopped garlic
3/4 c chopped onion
2 cans of Italian whole tomatoes (or 5 Romas peeled & sliced)
1 tsp fennel seed (don't leave out but you can back it down to 1/2 tsp)
Pinch of saffron
1 Tbl, plus 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt (we used Sea Salt)
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbl butter plus more for bread

2 1/2 c boiling water
8 oz clam juice