Bourride And Aioli | The French Chef Season 6 | Julia Child

Julia Child prepares the famous Mediterranean fish soup, served with garlic mayonnaise. This is a fascinating and unexpected combination born under the hot sun of southern France.

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-This is Anarhichas lupus and his friends. You’ll be seeing more of them later, when we do bourride and aioli, today, on “The French Chef”! ♪♪ ♪♪ -“The French Chef” is made possible by a grant from the Polaroid Corporation and by a grant from Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated. ♪♪

-Bourride is a Provençal French fish soup and it, like Gaul, is divided into three parts. Part one, of course, is the fish; and part two is a soup and part three is the aioli sauce that goes with it and turns it all into a bourride.

And I’m going to start in on part two, the soup, which consists of 3 or 4 tablespoons of good olive oil and a sliced carrot; a sliced leek; and a large, sliced onion. If you don’t have a leek, use another onion. And you want about 1.5 to 2 cups of mixed vegetables,

All sliced, and they go into the olive oil and they cook very slowly for about 8 or 10 minutes. And this is you cook them slowly, as always, so that you get all the flavor out of the vegetables. That should cook covered and they’re not supposed to brown.

And this is a wonderful kind of a fish soup is because you can use any kind of lean, fresh fish or lean, freshly — fresh-frozen fish. The important thing, naturally, for making a soup or for using any fish at all is that it really be fresh,

And that means you can always tell by smelling it. And, if it smells as though it came from right out of the sea, it’s fine to use. And in the Mediterranean, where this soup originated, they used a kind of fish that they have right there

And we can use the kind of fish that we have right here, as long as they’re firm-fleshed and lean and white. For instance, you can use halibut. This is a lovely little baby halibut. You can use cod and here’s a grea-ea-ea-ea-t, big cod, fresh out of the ocean. This also comes frozen, too.

And then here’s another, excellent, fish, called the cusk. We’ve used this before. We used it in canelés and we also used it in a fish dinner. It’s a member of the cod family. And you notice how its fins are. They just go straight all the way around and around

To the tail and it has a wonderful, firm flesh and it’s a delicious fish. And this is an unusual one, called Anarhichas lupus. That’s the Latin name, but they call it a catfish or a wolffish or an ocean whitefish, and it has a mean mouth.

Look at those big, thick lips and enormous teeth in there. But it has a delicious, white, firm flesh and it also has fins that go all the way around. You probably would never know what it was if you bought fish fillets ’cause they’d never tell you.

They just would say this was whitefish, whitefish for soup. [ Thud ] But, in the Mediterranean, they use a fish called a baudroie, which begins with a B. We also have that in the Atlantic. That’s called a monkfish. Or you can use whiting, or merlan, which they call in French.

You can use scallops. As long as it’s white and fresh, it’s fine, and you’d like a mixture, if you could possibly have it. And you’d usually, when you bought the fish, it would be cut into steaks and you want steaks that are about an inch thick, anyway.

And here’s some halibut steak and with this, you could have your fish man do it, or you can do it yourself. Just get a big knife and cut around the bone. And the two ends, the two thin ends, you cut off and discard because they’re slightly gelatinous.

This is a French fish knife, which is great, and you just cut it into serving portions. They’re about 1×3 inches. Or it just depends on how you feel about it, but they’re supposed to be in rather large chunks and you can leave the skin on or not, as you like.

Now, if you have a cod or a husk fillet, or a hake fillet; or like big one, like this, that’s about an inch and a half thick, cut it into about 2×3-inch chunks. And, for six people, you’d like at least 3 pounds of assorted fish

And you want it assorted, if you possibly can, just because it gives much more interest to the soup. Now, if you happen to be a fisherman and you have a great, big ocean catfish, like this and you have the right equipment, you can just cut it yourself, just cut it into big steaks.

[ Scraping ] As you can see, the flesh there, it’s firm and fine and wonderful. If you happen to run into conger eel, that would also be good. And you can — The Provençal method is usually just to cut it in big steaks and leave the bones right in

And you just cut off the thin part. That doesn’t seem to cut it off as well as it should, but that does a pretty good job. I’ll add this to my fish plate over here. I might as well have a piece of cusk, while I’m at it, too. I’ll use the tail part.

There’s nothing like having a whole lot of fish at hand. Now, I guess I’ll have to use a different system to cut that part off there, that upside-down. [ Thudding ] If you’re gonna do a fish like this, you have to have all the equipment.

I’ll add that to the soup, too, to give it more interest. And, now, when you’ve got this as your part one, when you’ve got that done, you can do the fish all ahead and cover it in the refrigerator. And then, we’re gonna continue on with part two, which is the vegetables.

And these have had to cook about 8 to 10 minutes, until they’re tender, and then you want to add some tomatoes to them. This is the kind of recipe in which there are a whole lot of various ideas on how it should be done. I do it the way I like it.

Some people don’t put tomatoes in at all and the soup is going to be strained, so, you don’t have to peel the tomatoes or do anything, just cut them up. And these, the tomatoes, ideally should cook another 5 minutes, in with the vegetables, and then you add your liquid to it

And, if you have fish stock, add that, because it’s — it gives your soup much more flavor. You want about 3 quarts. Or you can use water, if you don’t have any fish stock. And then, you want herbs. And, with this, you want a bay leaf and you want 2 cloves of garlic.

And the garlic, you don’t need to peel at all. You just put them right in. And then some thyme, about 1/4- to 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. And then, we get to the very Provençal herbs, and one is fennel, or fenouil, and you can buy this either in seeds, like this,

Just little seeds; or sometimes, you can buy it in flower. This, I brought over from Marseille with me. And then, you have orange peel. This is very typical. You have two pieces of dried orange peel, about 2 inches long, or you can buy bottled orange peel.

If you had the bottled, you’d put in about 1/4 teaspoon. Then, I always like to put saffron in. And be sure, when you buy saffron, which is expensive, you use the saffron flowers ’cause you can get fake saffron and you want to be very careful about the saffron.

If you put too much in, it’ll have a slightly medicinal taste. And then, we want some salt in and the salt depends on your taste and then I also like to add some wine. This is optional. You don’t have to. Either 1 cup of dry white wine

Or about 3/4 cup of dry white vermouth. And then, ideally, you would like — This should all simmer together for about 15 minutes, until it has a perfect taste to it. And then, be sure and taste it and make sure that you have enough salt in it. [ Slurping ]

That needs a little bit more salt. ‘Cause the idea of this is that is in absolutely perfect — It just tastes absolutely perfectly when the fish goes in. As you can see, this is very much like a bouillabaisse — a bouillabaisse base, but it’s not quite as strong.

And then, when this is up to a rolling boil, in goes your fish. I’m just gonna dump it all in together. And that has scallops in, as well as all these various kinds of fish. And I’m gonna put the cover on again because it should’ve been at a boil

When all of this went in. And then you want to have just enough liquid to cover and just so it covers the fish by about 1/2 inch and then, it only cooks for about 10 minutes. So that is your part one and two together. And this, you do this just at the last,

Just before you go to serve it, and then you have part three, which is the aioli sauce. And this is a garlic mayonnaise, and that doesn’t mean that it’s a mayonnaise with garlic in it, but it’s a mayonnaise made in a special way. If you were in Provence, you’d have a great,

Big marble mortar, like this. And you have garlic and you pound it and pound it and pound it and then, you beat in your olive oil. So it’s a very special, thick, delicious mayonnaise. Though no household should be without a marble mortar, in case you don’t have one,

You can make it perfectly well in a big bowl and use any kind of a pounding instrument. If you don’t have a wooden masher, you could use a heavy ladle and pound with that. But before you add the garlic, you have a piece of dry French bread and you cut the crusts off

And then, you grate it into your bowl. And this helps thicken the sauce. You want about, oh, I should say 1/3 to 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, or about two handfuls, if you could squash it all together. See? I can squash about two handfuls of that together.

And then, you add either some vinegar or fish stock, just to moisten it, about 1 tablespoonful. And then start pounding that around ’cause you want this to soften up. Then, you put in your garlic and how much garlic depends very much on you. Some people put in 1 or 2 cloves per person.

I find that, for six people, about 4 large cloves are enough. This is where you get ahead of the usual Mediterranean housewife ’cause you can put it in with the garlic press and that advances your pounding a little bit. [ Crackling ] There are two cloves.

I think this, when you make it, you’ll find, after you’ve made it, just how much garlic you like, but it has to be definitely a garlic sauce. There’s three in. Now, that was three, and here goes four. What a wonderful impression. I mean invention, the garlic press is.

And try not to get any skin as it goes in. Oh! I’m gonna take the cover off of this now ’cause it’s boiling and the soup should be at a steady, slow boil, which you wouldn’t think, but that’s the way it’s supposed to do and that’s why you have the firm-fleshed fish.

And now, we’re gonna pound this. And be sure — I’ve learned this from very sad experience. Be sure that you put a cushion under your bowl, unless it’s a very tough one, and the point here is that you’ve got to pound the garlic so that it’s absolutely in a very fine purée.

And, if you didn’t have a garlic press, you would have to probably pound it about 8 or 10 minutes, but with the garlic press, it cuts it down, to some extent. And, now, also to help it go, I’m gonna put in 2 egg yolks. See, if you were using a regular mayonnaise,

You were making a regular mayonnaise, you would have to use about 4 egg yolks, but with this, you just need 2. Most people just say one, but I always want to make sure that it takes. I did a messy egg-breaking there. This is my husband’s way of doing it, in his hands.

[ Chuckles warmly ] And then, mix that all around. This is now you’re getting somewhat like a mayonnaise. When your egg yolks go in, you want to mix and pound until they’re thick. ‘Cause, if you don’t, you’re gonna have a sauce that doesn’t take. And then it’s gonna have some salt in,

As soon as this is thick. And about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. And the salt seems to also help the mass to thicken up, so it’ll be ready to take the oil. And, now, I’m gonna turn that fish down just a little bit. And, now, the oil goes in

And this is, again, just like a mayonnaise. Just a few drops, at first, until the sauce really thickens. Keep your eye on your olive oil boil and your olive oil bottle and you keep pounding, pounding, pounding. This is always to make the sauce smooth. Then, a few more drops of oil.

Then, after it’s really taken and thickened, you can add the oil a little more quickly. And you can also stop pounding and begin using a wire whip. Well, as just like any mayonnaise, it’s this first part that’s so terribly important. You can see why, actually, a big, heavy mortar

Would be better, ’cause you wouldn’t have to hold onto your bowl while you pounded. You can add about 1 cup of oil and this should be a good, fruity olive oil. Fruity, I mean strong and tasting of olive. You know, I think I can begin beating with a wire whip now.

But if I were doing it like a Marseille type, I would keep on pounding and it would take a very long time. I’ll beat it a little bit and begin adding the oil a little faster. ‘Cause, remember, when we made mayonnaise a little while ago,

It was always this business of the very careful adding of the oil, at first. But this sauce is supposed to be a very thick, heavy one… …practically standing up on its own. I had some. I’m sorry to say I had some mayonnaise. It was down in —

I mean, some aioli in Nice, down on the Mediterranean. They hadn’t made it properly. They hadn’t pounded it the way they should’ve and you could taste a lot of garlic pieces on your tongue and it just didn’t have the proper consistency. Now, see? Can you see, now, how that is?

You see that’s a very, very thick sauce. And this aioli is good, not only in a fish soup, but it’s simply marvelous in — We made a minestrone the other night and put some aioli sauce in it. It was just marvelous. You can put in a little more vinegar or lemon juice

To thin it out and also to give it a little more taste. You could add some red pepper or red pepper sauce to it, too, if you wanted to make it very much stronger, but I don’t really think that it’s necessary. Now, that’s just about right. You see how thick that is?

Now, my fish, I’m gonna move over a little bit ’cause I think it’s getting almost done. And, now, we want half of the sauce is to go into a little bowl and that will be for serving. And then, the other half of it is to be added to the soup

And with it are going to go 4 egg yolks. You can add more egg yolks, if you want, one egg yolk per person, but I think 4 is enough ’cause I don’t wanna make it too rich, and that just gets beaten into your aioli. Then, you’re ready, now, to take the fish out

And the fish is out when — I mean, the fish is done just when it’s — When it’s just done, it shouldn’t be flaky. It shouldn’t dry out. It should hold its shape and about 8 to 10 minutes, you’ll find, is just about right. This goes out on a hot platter

And then the soup is going to be strained. There are some little scallops coming along and some of the vegetables come out with the fish, too, which is quite all right. You can see why you want big chunks. There’s that piece of cusk.

Now, if you don’t like to serve the skin with the fish, you can take it off as you arrange it on the platter, but the Mediterranean method is to just leave the fish and the bones and everything together and then it shows that it was really fresh fish. Now,

You want to keep this fish warm because we’re going to make the liaison on the — the liaison of the soup and so you’re going to have to cover it and keep it warm, somehow. You can either set it over hot water

Or I happen to have a hot plate in the dining room, so I’m going to put it in there. And it only is gonna be for 3 or 4 minutes. And there, it’s got its cover on and that’ll stay warm very nicely. Now, we have the delicate and important part

Of making the liaison of the soup with the aioli. So we’re gonna strain the soup into the soup tureen. We’ll get everything out of there [chuckling] ’cause I was doing this a little fast. Well, that has an absolutely delicious flavor. And we’ll get that out of the way.

Then, you want to save a little bit of this lovely stock for later. You’ll see why. So, take a good ladleful of it out, onto a little bowl. Then, you gradually ladle this hot soup onto your aioli sauce. This is really very much like making a custard. As you remember, when you’re putting

Anything hot into egg yolks, you always have to add the hot very, very gradually, so that you don’t scramble the egg yolks. And, by this time, your mouth is really watering ’cause it just has a lovely smell, sort of sun and fish and garlic and everything that’s good.

Now, after you’ve got about two or three ladles into your aioli, you then pour all the rest of the soup into your pan again and, now, this is going to be thickened over heat and this is a very delicate part of the arrangement.

I mean, of the recipe, because the egg yolks in the aioli sauce are going to thicken very gradually, until they sort of nappe the spoon and make a very lightly thick soup. We’ve done this a great many times, making a custard sauce. And I’m not going to do the whole thing

Because it takes about 4 or 5 minutes, but stir it over moderate heat for 4 or 5 minutes, reaching all over the bottom of the pan, until the soup gradually thickens and just coats the spoon. And I have some that’s all ready. I want you to see how it is.

Well, this is something. I can’t make this whole recipe in quite half an hour, so I had to skip that part ’cause we’ve done custard so much. But as it gradually thickens, a little steam comes up and then it thickens enough just to coat the spoon.

You see, it just coats on the top of it. And then, as soon as it’s done that, you don’t let it boil, immediately pour it into the tureen and you’re ready to serve and in this case, you should serve immediately. So the soup goes on and that little extra bowl of stock

And the aioli and then you’re ready to serve and the fish is staying warm on the platter. Now, this is a very rich main-course dish and you really don’t need much of anything else with it, except, maybe some fruit at the end, but I think you’ll see, when you serve it yourself,

That you’ve got a full meal. And there’s me hot fish. Now, I’m gonna show you how you serve this marvelous dish. You start out with two pieces of bread and then you take your bowl of stock, and you put just about a spoonful of the stock, just to moisten the bread.

Then, you give each person a nice serving of fish, and try to give them one piece of each kind that you have. And here are some scallops and there’s another, nice bit of fish and some of those cooked vegetables and then, on goes the soup, a big ladleful of it.

Then, some of the aioli soup, aioli sauce. Now, this is a bourride, when you have all of these things combined together. Now, I’m going to do you one more, so you’ll remember how it works. Two pieces of French bread. They’re about 3/8-inch, I mean, 3/4-inch thick;

And then one spoonful of this lovely, fragrant cooking liquid; and the fish. The reason you have the bread is because it thickens the soup also. You could, if you like, serve also boiled potatoes with it, but I don’t really think, I don’t think you’ll find that it’s necessary.

And then, ah, this marvelous, garlic-flavored soup. I think it’s very important, in this recipe, that, if you can, you make a fish stock to cook the fish in because it makes a great deal of difference in the taste. Some recipes that I’ve read just throw in the vegetables and the fish

And boil everything up and depend on the fish and the garlic mayonnaise to give it a flavor, but I’ve found, with the tomatoes and the saffron and the good fish stock, you have a marvelous dish and I think it’s such an imaginative way of serving fish

And then, you eat with a big soup spoon and fork, and you just cut it up and swish it all up and dig in and there you are. So that’s all for today on “The French Chef.” This is Julia Child. Bon appétit. ♪♪ -“The French Chef” has been made possible

By a grant from Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated and by a grant from the Polaroid Corporation. ♪♪ Julia Child is coauthor of the book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪