Bee Wilson savors the sweetness of routine in 'The Secret of Cooking'

Bouillabaisse sauce with orange and anise

Serves 8

I love the flavors of a French fish soup or bouillabaisse: the heady mixture of orange peel, fennel seeds, tomatoes, wine, and garlic. But you don’t need to be a fish eater to enjoy this sauce. It is also incredibly good with sautéd chunks of celery root, a vegetable whose sweet-savory fleshiness is one of the best stand-ins for meat or fish. Making bouillabaisse from celery root is a trick I learned from The Cranks Bible by Nadine Abensur. This sauce also makes a fine stew with potatoes combined with other vegetables; or with chicken. Or, needless to say, with fish (simmer 1 lb 2 oz–1 lb 9 oz/500–700g white fish fillets, cubed, in half a batch of sauce, with or without fresh mussels or clams, for 3–4 minutes or until cooked, with flat-leaf parsley or fennel fronds sprinkled at the end).

Ingredients 

• 1/4 cup/60ml olive oil
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 bulbs of fennel or 4–5 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon chile flakes
• 2 star anise
• A long strip of peel from an orange (preferably unwaxed)
• 4 × 14-oz/400g cans of whole, peeled tomatoes (in the summer, I sometimes make it with 2 cans of tomatoes plus 13/4 lb/800g chopped fresh tomatoes)
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/200ml white wine

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, wide frying pan over medium-low heat and soften the garlic and chopped fennel or celery for 3–4 minutes, or until soft and fragrant. Add the fennel seeds, paprika, chile flakes, star anise, and orange peel and stir for half a minute more, or until all the scents rise up and mingle.

2. Add the canned tomatoes, sugar, wine, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Simmer for 30–40 minutes, or until well reduced. Remove the star anise and orange. Transfer to a saucepan and blitz until very smooth. Check for seasoning. Divide up into whatever portion sizes you want and refrigerate or freeze until needed.

Celery root and white bean bouillabaisse

Serves 4

Ingredients 

• 1/4 cup/60ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium-large celery root, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 × 15-oz/425g can of white beans, drained
• ½ × batch of bouillabaisse sauce with orange and anise (page 251)

To serve

• A handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• Lemon, cut into wedges
• Slices of baguette, toasted
• 3 1/2 oz/100g Gruyère cheese, grated (1 cup), or vegetarian equivalent (optional)

For the rouille

• Mayonnaise (either a batch of homemade mayonnaise made with 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/200ml oi land 2 yolks plus a little lemon juice and salt, or 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/200g store-bought mayonnaise)
• 1 roasted red bell pepper from a jar
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste
• ½ teaspoon paprika (sweet or smoked)
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large, wide frying pan over medium-high heat and sauté the pieces of celery root until nicely brown (8–10 minutes). Don’t skimp on this stage; it adds flavor. Add the white beans and the sauce and simmer until the celery root is tender. As always, add a splash more water as needed. Serve in bowls with chopped flat-leaf parsley, wedges of lemon, and sliced toasted baguette on the side.

2. If you want to make the grated cheese and rouille to go with it (it’s good either way), blend the mayonnaise with the red bell pepper, garlic, paprika, and cayenne. Check to see if it needs more lemon. Serve with the celery root bouillabaisse in wide bowls. Put the rouille in a bowl on the table and the grated cheese in another bowl, with the toasted baguette in a third bowl. Each person can take slices of toasted baguette and top them with rouille and grated cheese, before floating them like little rafts in the aromatic red soup.