Seafood Stew

We had a fabulous dinner party last night with some foodie friends and decided to make this special-occasion stew which resembles a bouillabaisse. It's from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris cookbook - a source I always trust.

We got all our veggies and seafood for the stew from the Eastern Market in Detroit (highly recommended!), and also made a side of fresh local asparagus, roasted for 5 minutes at 400 degrees with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. A local wine merchant suggested a good cote du rhone to complement the anise notes in the soup. And you definitely need a hearty, delicious bread to sop up all the broth!

**Definitely take the time to make the homemade stock if you can.** I'm sure it would still taste good with store-bought stock but the flavors from this stock were just incredible.

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons good olive oil
* 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 small)
* 2 cups large-diced small white potatoes
* 2 cups chopped fennel (1 large bulb)
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 2 cups good white wine
* 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, chopped
* 1 quart Seafood Stock, recipe follows, or store-bought fish stock
* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (3 cloves)
* 1 teaspoon saffron threads
* 1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined (reserve the shells for the stock)
* 1 pound each halibut and bass fillets, cut in large chunks
* 24 mussels, cleaned
* 3 tablespoons Pernod (we substituted Sambuca for 1/10 of the price)
* 1 teaspoon grated orange zest (I used 1.5 teaspoons)
* Toasted baguette slices, buttered and rubbed with garlic (we used crusty French round served plain, no butter or garlic)

Directions

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or stockpot, add the onions, potatoes, fennel, salt, and pepper, and saute over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, until the onions begin to brown. Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the tomatoes with their juices, stock, garlic, and saffron to the pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Add the shrimp, fish, and mussels, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pot to sit covered for another 5 minutes. The fish and shrimp should be cooked and the mussels opened. Discard any mussels that don't open. Stir in the Pernod, orange zest, and sea salt, to taste. Serve with bread.

Seafood Stock:

* 2 tablespoons good olive oil
* Shells from 1 pound large shrimp
* 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
* 2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
* 3 stalks celery, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 1/2 quarts water
* 1/2 cup good white wine
* 1/3 cup tomato paste
* 1 tablespoon kosher salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* 10 sprigs fresh thyme, including stems

Warm the oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp shells, onions, carrots, and celery over medium heat for 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add 1 1⁄2 quarts of water, the white wine, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve, pressing the solids. You should have approximately 1 quart of stock. If not, you can make up the difference with water or white wine (following the recipe exactly, I got about 8/10 of a quart and used white wine to make up the rest; it tasted great).

Yield: 1 quart