Friday, May 8, 2015

French Fridays with Dorie - Seafood Pot-au-Feu


Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is Seafood Pot-au-feu. Traditionally, a pot-au-feu is a traditional French beef stew that translates literally to „Pot on the Fire“ – Dorie´s version with different types of fish and shellfish is essentially a seafood stew and rather easy to reproduce in your home kitchen.




Pot-au-feu usually combines several cuts of meat and marrowbones into a broth with vegetables, and can constitute a three course meal all on its own. The broth is served as a soup, the meat with mustard, the marrow with bread.




It is considered to be the quintessence of French family cuisine, this must be the most celebrated dish in France. It honors the tables of the rich and not so rich alike. Despite its lack of sophistication, it has survived the passage of time. Pot-au-feu has been referred to as „a triumph of simplicity“ (what a rather unique way to describe this) and the inspiration for many other dishes, such as poule au pot, potée au choux, navarin, daubes, carbonnades and not forgetting the beautiful chicken soup. You can feast on it for several days.




Dorie´s recipe is at the same time traditional and non traditional – the essence of the pot-au-feu is retained with the preparation of the broth and the vegetables but the meat is taken out and replaced with seafood (fresh salmon and prawns in my case – as I could not get my hands on mussels today).




For the vegetables, I went with new potatoes, spring onions, carrots, leeks, baby portabellas, and peas. A nice mix of tasty and colorful.




To serve, you could simply serve the pot-au-feu straight from the casserole and let your delighted diners help themselves, but serving will be easier if you portion the vegetables as well as the seafood in your kitchen. Divide the fish between warm soup plates, surround with the vegetables and pour on some of the cooking liquid. Finish with fresh basil leaves or sprinkle with chopped parsley and accompany with homemade pesto (I prepared a wild ramp-basil pesto), aïoli or a rouille provençale (I used garlic, saffron, cayenne pepper, egg yolk, a mild olive oil, French sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper) and grilled slices of French baguette.




A delicious, colourful springtime or summer dish, full of flavor from the vegetables and the fresh seafood. Combining fresh fish and fabulous vegetables this way in a dish, is really very simple, and it renders a very satisfying and nutritious meal with a touch of elegance...




To see whether the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group enjoyed this week´s recipe, please go here.




For copyright reasons, we do not publish the recipes from the book. But you can find the recipe for the Seafood Pot-au-feu on pages 308-10 in Dorie Greenspan´s cookbook "Around my French Table".


36 comments:

  1. Dieser Pot au feu sieht fantastisch aus, liebe Andrea!
    Werde Dein Rezept unbedingt ausprobieren, wir alle zu Hause lieben Fisch und Meeresfrüchte.
    Liebe Grüße aus Lima
    Daniela

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    1. Liebe Daniela, freut mich außerordentlich - lieben Dank! Fisch und Meeresfrüchte gehören zu den Dingen, die ich am liebsten esse, leider nur viel zu selten, da es manchmal ein wenig tückisch sein kann, hier guten und frischen Fisch zu bekommen.
      Ganz liebe Grüße nach Lima,
      Andrea

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  2. Pot on fire eh - love it! Yours looks delicious.

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    1. Gaye, aren´t these fun names/translations for these dishes the very best?! Athough, actually, the French name only describes the fact that these types of dishes used to be prepared on a low fire for quite some time.

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  3. You made a feast with the homemade pesto and ailoi! Shrimp instead of mussels was a delicious substitution, too :)

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    1. Liz, thank you very much - whenever I think seafood stews or soups, I always want rouille and pesto alongside.
      Andrea

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  4. Your pictures are awesome! Truly a setting fit for royalty!

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    1. Emily, thank you so much much - how wonderful that you enjoy my pictures!
      Andrea

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  5. It's off-season here in the mountains, most restaurants are closed and I have no access to good fish or fresh vegetables so I will wait until early summer to make this recipe. I'm almost happy I couldn't pull this together this week because your "side" garnishments, especially the rouille provençale suggestion remind me of the Côte d'Azur. Your pictures this week are especially lovely and such a reminder of springtime. What a terrific and informative post - why am I not surprised. I always look forward to your notes from your small German kitchen.

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    1. Dear Mary, you are the best - I so wanted to catch the lightness of springtime cooking in my post and I hope I managed that - for some reason, I could not picture anything else - seafood and fresh herbs need some good light or they will most definitely not look their best...we liked the pesto in the soup and I loved the rouille on the grilled slices of French baguette - vacation allright and I am glad that I prepared this dish this very way - I so need a vacation!!! Maybe you will join me for a trip...sigh...
      Lots of love,
      Andrea

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  6. This looks like a fancy restaurant meal Andrea. What a feast! I want to dine at your small German kitchen!

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    1. Chris, we would love to have you over for a meal or two - I think I would even manage to bake a cake or two for dessert!
      Thank you so much for your comment - from the pictures on fb it looks like your had a great time in London!
      Andrea

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  7. wow! fantastic dish.. i love to have it with a group of friends

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    1. Candy, perfect dish for sharing with family and friends - that´s for sure!

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    1. Barbara, ganz lieben Dank und herzliche Grüße in die schöne Provence!
      andrea

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  9. Is that a new header on your site? It's a gorgeous image! I am always so impressed by your presentations. I love the serving bowl with the fish on the lid. I'm also impressed that you made both pesto and rouille. I'm sure everyone loved this one!

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    1. Jora - yes, a new header. It is my favorite herb of all times, rosemary with its little light purple blossoms that are so delicious and pretty too.
      For some reason, although this was by no means a bouillabaisse, I absolutely wanted to eat some pesto and rouille to go along with this seafood stew - we loved it. The only regret I have is not having being able ot get some mussels to add to the mix but this was quite the treat as is.
      Thank you for your kind comment,
      Andrea

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  10. I have had a real pot-au-feu and wasn't really that impressed by it. It was lovely, to be sure, but nothing terribly special Made me wonder why it is so celebrated. Your (Dorie's) fish and seafood version is a different thing - I would love this, because I love fish and seafood. Your choice of veggies is perfect! Liebe Grüße, David

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    1. David, too kind, than you - I must agree with you on the pot-au-feu - although it is a much celebrated dish, I am not the biggets of fans either. But this "fishy version" with pesto and rouille had us clamoring for more.
      Liebe Grüsse an dich und Mark,
      Andrea

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  11. Quite a lovely dish Andrea. I do love pot-au-feu, though with a richly infused seafood broth. Very beautiful photos.

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    1. Peggy, thank you so much - I appreciate your kind words.

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  12. Lovely presentation, your photos are stunning.

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    1. Rosemary, - that´s nice! Thanks so much - I really enjoy getting comments about my pictures!

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  13. Thanks for the background on pot-au-feu it is really interesting how it is divided into several courses. You really added the extra umph that this dish needed by making gorgeous pesto and mayo, beautifully done.

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    1. Diane - thanks so much! For me, fish stews always seem to call for that something extra like pesto and rouille - this dish reminded me of a bouillabaisse, so these two additions were just the way to go with this dish.

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  14. I enjoyed reading about the background of the pot-au-feu….very interesting. I remember, years ago, reading about how dishes like this were divided into several courses. I love that concept.
    Your photos are gorgeous! Your salmon looks amazingly fresh! Beautifully done! Happy Mother’s Day, Andrea!!

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    1. And the same to you, Kathy - hope you spent a wonderful Mother´s Day with your family! And thank you also for your kind words.

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  15. What a delicious dish. It looks so elegant and appetizing. Here in the Bay Area we make a dish called cioppino , it has a tomato base.

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    1. Gerlinde, Dorie´s recipe called for a chicken stock base and I believe that a vegetable stock base would be equally nice - it lets the taste of the fresh seafood and fish really shine!
      Thank you for your very kind comment und liebe Grüße nach Santa Cruz,
      Andrea

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  16. Your soup looks delicious. I did a make-up this week and enjoyed it very much. Looking forward to what little time we have left in the group.

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    1. Diane, same here - looking forward to the few last posts remaining with the FFwD group:

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  17. Absolutely beautiful, Andrea! Loved the colors and the flowers! Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

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    1. Katie, I appreciate your kind comment - I did have a nice Mother´s Day, it was also the 14th birthday of one of our daughters, so it was more busy than quiet but nice. Hope you had a wonderful one too!

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