We are in Tilba on the South Coast and one of our traditions, when here, is to make bouillabaisse.
The day is spent foraging the beach for mussels, seaweed and any other delicacies we can finde.
Fishing on this day is taken very serious! (although I do go and visit my local fish shop, just in case….)
This time is really special, as my friend Felix, the owner and chef of ‘Bei Amici’ restaurant, is staying with us and his son Max.Birri has invited some of his friends and Juliet is here as well. So we have a full house!

• this is Tbags, Birri’s friend, striking gold after finding a colony of pippies  and seaweed
• fresh sea water  is also used in this bouillabaisse

• we used local ling and some salmon caught by Birri on the beach

• local octopus
• mussels and prawns

• Felix has made a fish stock with the bones and heads of our caught fish
• he added some seawater
• onions and celery
• let it gently boil for about one hour
• we strained the stock to use in the soup

• he then expertly finely chopped some fennel
• a lot of garlic
• celery
• spanish onions
•  Italian parsley
• chilli
• in some oil  he let the vegetables cook until they were soft

• we firstly cooked the octopus for about 20 minutes
• adding 2 glasses of dry white wine
• then the strained fish stock

• one large tin of pelati
• we let this cook gently for another 20 minutes
• in the last 10 minutes we put the fish, mussels, prawns and sea weed in
• Max made an aioli mayonnaise to serve with the bouillabaisse

• here we are serving the soup, adding finely chopped parsley
• we had lots of crunchy baguettes from Honour bread in Bermagui
• it was the best bouillabaisse !!

THANK YOU FELIX, MAX AND ALL THE FORAGERS

• Clementine bringing the carrots from the garden