Matthew's Bouillabaisse-Inspired Seafood Stew

Ingredients for four:

• 1 Onion, diced
• 1 Leek, chopped
• 1 Celery, chopped
• 1 Fennel, roughly chopped into 1-2cm chunks
• 1 Tin of fish stock
• Handful of parsley, finely chopped
• Greenland Prawn shells from 500g of prawns*
• 1 Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Mayonnaise
• Saffron
• As many garlic cloves as you can handle
• Sourdough toast 

*You can use whole greenlands, but I just use the leftovers from my prawn cocktail, that’s coming soon, folks.

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Method:

Make sure you prepare all the ingredients first and have them athand.

1. In a pestle & mortar, mix half the saffron with 2 to 3 cloves of garlic and about 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise. Work until the color starts to come out of the saffron and set aside.
2. In a large pan, sweat off half the leek, half the fennel, and all the onion on medium to high heat. Once it's up to temperature, add in the Greenland prawns*. When the vegetables are soft and the aroma of the prawns has filled your kitchen, pour in the fish stock and bring to a gentle simmer, allowing this to simmer away for about 8 minutes.
3. Grab your stick blender and blend until the mixture is as smooth as possible. Filter this through a fine sieve and set aside.
4. Clean the pot of any debris and sweat down the remaining leeks, fennel, and your preferred amount of garlic. Once soft, pour in a tin of chopped tomatoes and your orange prawn stock. Add the remaining saffron and bring to a simmer again.
5. Place your chosen seafood on top and cover. Put it in the oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes. I used Hake in my video, but you can use anything you like, prawns, clams, mussels, any white fish. Avoid oily fish like salmon or tuna.
6. While the stew is in the oven, finish off the aioli; it should be bright orange now after its little rest. Toast your sourdough and adorn it with the wonderful garlicky aioli you’ve just made.
7. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and enjoy with family and friends.