Bouillabaisse: “boil and reduce”

Reading Time: < 1 minute

A Provencal stew made with fish and seafood, olive oil, saffron, garlic, onions, tomatoes and herbs, bouillabaisse is actually, or at least originally, a conflation of two words, both cooking techniques.

It’s part boullir, “to boil,” and part abaisser, “to reduce.” So the stew process starts, at least etymologically, with boiling some fish stock and the reducing it to a thicker liquid which is the base for the dish.

After that, it could be a bowlful of monk fish filet, tiger shrimp, clams and mussels swimming happily in a saffron-tomato-fennel-bouillabaisse broth.

[Photo/Wikimedia Commons]