Recipe no. 41 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 28.
Ingredients
- eels
- large perch
- medium-sized pike
- grayling or trout
- burbot
- a dozen crayfish (in place of spiny lobster)
Preparation
- Choosing the freshwater fishGather eels, large perch, medium-sized pike, grayling or trout and burbot; allow a dozen crayfish to replace the spiny lobster.
- Substituting into the basic recipeProceed exactly as for the bouillabaisse of recipe 40, simply substituting these freshwater fish for the sea fish.
Reboul's text
Sometimes, according to circumstances, when one might find oneself far from any seaport and have only a few varieties of freshwater fish at hand, one could treat oneself to a bouillabaisse of this kind, which, well made, would not lack flavour.
Here are the fish that should be used by preference:
Eels, large perch, medium-sized pike, grayling or trout, and burbot; a dozen crayfish will take the place of spiny lobster.
Certainly we do not mean to set this bouillabaisse alongside the real one, the one savoured on the shores of the Mediterranean, but for want of anything else it will provide a pleasant illusion.
There is no need to repeat the recipe, the method remains the same, only the substitution of the fish needs to be made.
One can likewise make a bouillabaisse with nothing but sardines, or any other fish, as certain housewives do, but then it has the name only; even this name varies according to the locality or according to the fish that forms its base. The most eccentric is the bouillabaisse without fish, or egg bouillabaisse; see recipe 44.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| anguielo | eel |
| perco | perch |
| bechet | pike |
| troucho | trout |
| escarabisso | crayfish |
| langousto | spiny lobster |
| boui-abaisso | bouillabaisse |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 41, page 28. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.