Pacific Northwest Bouillabaisse
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: April 3, 2008

Barnaby has the uncanny ability to look into the fridge and be able to whip up some fabulous gourmet meal. I, on the other hand, will take a look and immediately say, "We have nothing, nothing at all. We need to go to the store."
Last night was one such night. I saw nothing and Barnaby saw a cornucopia of delectables. So he took over (hmm, maybe I should just start feigning culinary ineptness more often!). What he grabbed from the depths of our pantry and cold storage was this:
Freezer: clams in an abundance of their juice, a fillet of King salmon and a few halibut cheeks.
Fridge: a bit of fennel, mayonnaise
Pantry: an onion, a carton of good quality tomato sauce, saffron threads, white wine, chili powder, the remainder of a loaf of pugliese, truffle oil...I'm sure I'm missing some other minor ingredients, but you get the gist.
The result of his genius was a beautiful and ever so scrumptious non-traditional bouillabaisse. We named it Pacific Northwest Bouillabaisse due to two of its key ingredients: halibut cheeks and King salmon.  He didn't stop there, oh no, he served it with toast drizzled with a bit of truffle oil and a rouille on the side (you want to move in with us, don't you?).
It was the best darn scavenged meal I think I've ever had.
For further eating pleasure:
Here's a great classic bouillabaisse recipe from Simply Recipes.
Jacques Pépin's Chicken Bouillabaisse from Food and Wine.

Comments:
dreama
April 4, 2008

OOOOHHHH....I can almost taste this beautiful dish. It's dinner time and I dug all through the fridge and couldn't find much more than salad and tuna...
Vicky

I DO want to move in with you....lol.  Sounds like an awesome dish!