Ingredients
| 1 cup | Olive oil |
| 3 | Onions, medium, peeled and cut into thick slices |
| 6 ml | Garlic cloves, finely chopped |
| 4 Tbsp | Tomato paste |
| 10 | Tomatoes, ripe, roughly chopped |
| 1 head | Fennel, roughly chopped |
| 1 | Orange, peel only |
| 2 | Bay leaves |
| 2 cups | White wine |
| 3 sprigs | Fresh thyme |
| 8 | Saffron, strands, soaked in tbsp hot water |
| 1 cup | Parsley, chopped |
| 3 kgs | Seafood, up to 4kg (Main) |
Directions
- Heat the olive oil in a very large pan. Add the onions, tomato paste and garlic and cook together until the onions are soft.
- Add the tomatoes, fennel and orange peel, the bay leaves and thyme. Cook gently for 10 minutes .
- Add 6 cups of water and the 2 cups of white wine. Bring to the boil and add the bay leaves, thyme and the soaked saffron.
- Boil for 5 minutes, this helps amalgamate the oil and the water and infuse all the flavours.
- Keeping the heat high, start adding the fish and shellfish, starting with the meatiest first, as these will take the longest to cook.
- You may need to add more water as you go, the fish should be just covered.
- Once all the fish is cooked until just tender, turn the heat right down and scatter with the chopped parsley.
- Take the pot to the table to serve or, if you have one, a very large bow
For the seafood:(use a mix of hapuka, snapper, tarakihi, monkfish, gurnard, squid, octopus, mussels etc). The quantities of each don't matter but you need a range of textures. Clean and scale the fish and cut into large chunks - or ask your fishmonger to do this. You should