Ingredients
Fish and seafood
- 300 g hake (cod also works or other firm white fish
- 150 g raw king prawns
- 150–200 g mussels (I like to buy the wine parsley and garlic ones so I don’t need to clean them)
Vegetables and aromatics
- 1 medium leek, finely sliced
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- butter & olive oil
Sauce
- 175 ml dry white wine (I actually used champagne as I had accidentally drunk the white the night before! It was yummy)
- 500 ml shellfish stock (original recipe ile has 250 but I like to use it all up!)
- 200 g passata
- 1½ tbsp tomato purée
- 50 ml double cream (have also tried with 100 and was very good just had to darken it a bit)
- 1 generous tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- Pinch of Saffron
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- Lemon juice, parsley, salt and black pepper
Method
1. Soften the vegetables. Melt butter with olive oil. Add leek and shallot and cook gently for 8–10 minutes until soft (golden NOT brown) . Add garlic for another minute.
2. Develop the colour. Stir in tomato purée, saffron and paprika. Cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until the purée darkens to brick-red.
3. Reduce the wine. Add 175 ml white wine and simmer until reduced by approximately half.
4. Build the sauce. Add passata and the shellfish fish stock. Simmer uncovered for 12–15 minutes until the flavours concentrate and the sauce becomes a deeper red-orange.
5. Stir in 50/100 ml double cream, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer gently for another 3–5 minutes. The sauce will be lighter than a tomato-only stew, but reducing the tomato base first will help retain depth.
6. Cook the seafood. Add white fish and poach gently for 3–4 minutes. Add prawns and mussels, cover and cook until the fish is opaque, prawns are cooked through and mussels have opened, approximately another 3–5 minutes (Iile to cook the mussels separately because I want to make sure they are properly cooked)
7. Finish. Add a squeeze of lemon, chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper. Adjust salt to taste.
