31 Dec.: Bouillabaise

For New Years eve we started with a cheese plate (I can't remember all the cheeses, but they were mostly goat cheeses), rilletes (goose), and raw oysters (with shallots in vinegar). The main course was bouillabaise following a recipe in BittmanWorld. My only real deviations from the recipe were to add celery greens and bay leaves during the cooking and to dump in some white wine. Fish varieties were monkfish, cod, and snapper. I also used large shrimp (~16-20 count) and clams (some French variety).

Very, very good stuff. The orange zest, fennel, saffron combination went fantastically with the fish.

Wine note: there was a magic pairing here between the bouillabaise and the Macon-Villages white (Patriarche Pere & Fils, Macon-Villages White 2004) we drank with it. I'm not sure which component of the bouillabaise paired so well or if it was the full combination, but this was one of those "wow, this is *perfect*" moments.