Mom's Redfish Courtbouillon

By norsegal8

My father had a way of slicing a whole fish along the dorsal fin so that, as it cooked, the flesh would just lift from the bone, which made it quite easy to handle with just a serving spoon and fork. Much of the time in Louisiana, a courtbouillon (pronounced CU-boo-yon) looks more like a variation of bouillabaisse, using fish filets. But I think slow-cooking the whole fish on the bone yields a much better-tasting dish. Ask your fishmonger to prepare the fish gutted and scaled, and to remove its gills.

Ingredients

• 1 5-pound redfish
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 blue crabs, quartered
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 tomatoes, peeled and diced
• Leaves from 1 sprig fresh tarragon, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 cups Basic Shrimp Stock (recipe follows)
• 1 pound medium Louisiana or wild American shrimp, peeled
• 1 cup shucked oysters
• 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 3 dashes Worcestershire
• Tabasco
• 4 cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice (recipe follows)

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 300°. To keep the fish from curling up in the roasting pan while cooking, score both sides of the redfish about ¼ inch deep in a couple of places between the pectoral fins and the tail and along both sides of the dorsal fin.

2. Put the fish into a roasting pan just large enough for it to lie flat. Season the fish all over with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper and set aside.

3. Pour the oil into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the roux becomes deep brown and has a nutty aroma, about 15 minutes.

4. Add the onions and blue crab quarters to the roux and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the bell peppers, celery, garlic, and tomatoes. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring every so often.

5. Add the tarragon, pepper flakes, allspice, coriander, bay leaves, and Shrimp Stock to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper, then pour over the redfish in the roasting pan, cover the pan with foil, and bake the fish for about 40 minutes.

6. Scatter the shrimp, oysters, lump crabmeat, and green onions around the fish in the pan and return the pan to the oven. Bake the fish, uncovered, until it begins to flake from the bone, about 15 minutes more.

7. Add the Worcestershire, a little Tabasco, and salt and pepper to the tomato–shellfish gravy in the roasting pan. Use a large spoon and fork to portion the fish, serving it with the gravy over the rice.