By Mary Parks | 1 - 4 hours

Bouillabaisse is a traditional French Provençal fish dish made that can be made with whatever fish or shellfish is on hand. Green crabs are actually native to Southern France and have been used in Bouillabaisse recipes for centuries. In this recipe, we use monkfish, mussels, and green crabs but feel free to experiment with other seafood. 

In the notes below, we go through the process of preparing green crabs for the Bouillabaisse recipe two ways. You can either process the crab into roe, crab legs, and stock or prepare a stock using the whole crab.

Option 1: Prepare green crab stock, roe, and crab legs ahead of time

1. Heat 8 cups of water with a pinch of salt over high heat. Add fennel slices, peppercorns, and salt to water.

2. Sort your crabs into males and females. 

3. Once water is boiling, boil or steam female crabs for 8 minutes, remove and set aside to cool. Don’t toss this water, we’ll use the same water for stock. 

4. While female crabs are cooling, shuck male crab legs off of live crabs. We go through the process of shucking crab legs in steps 1-3 of this recipe and our shucking school video tutorial.  Rinse male crab legs and place them in the fridge. Throw the leftover bodies from the males in your stock pot and put stock pot on medium heat. 

5. Shuck roe from female crabs and sautee on medium heat with olive olive oil and sherry for 2 minutes until roe is firm and sherry is reduced. Set aside for Rouille. We go through the process of shucking crab roe in this recipe and this shucking school video tutorial. Put remaining cooked crab shells in the stock pot along with bodies from the male crabs 

6. Add peppercorns and fennel to your stock pot and allow crab shells leftover from shucking crab legs and roe to simmer for at least 30 minutes. Crush and stir crab shells throughout the process of cooking. 

7. Pour stock through a fine mesh strainer. Now you have crab legs, roe, and stock for the recipe below! 

Option 2: Prepare a green crab stock with the whole crab. To prepare a big batch of stock, see this recipe. To prepare a quick stock for the Bouillabaisse follow these steps. 

1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add 2-3 pounds of rinsed live green crabs, salt, fennel slices, and pepper. 

2. Crush green crabs and boil for 20- 30 minutes on high until half reduced. 

3. Pour stock through a fine mesh strainer and set aside. 

INGREDIENTS

Bouillabaisse

• olive oil

• 5 cloves of garlic, smashed

• 1 onion or 2 shallots, diced

• 1 bulb & fronds of fennel, half chopped & half sliced

• 1 carrot, chopped

• 1 stick of celery, diced

• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

• 2 Tbsp tomato paste

• 2 cups of canned or fresh tomato 

• 3 cups of green crab stock (see note above)

• optional: 1 cup of white wine

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 sprigs of thyme

• salt to taste

• pepper to taste

• optional: a few strands of saffron

• optional: red pepper flakes

• 1-2 lbs of mussels

• 1-2 lbs of monkfish, cut into 2 inch pieces

• optional: shucked green crab legs (see notes above)

Crouton & Rouille

• ¼ cup crusty bread, sliced

• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

• 1 garlic clove

• ½ tsp salt

• ⅓ cup olive oil 

• optional 2 Tbsp green crab roe, (see notes above)

DIRECTIONS

1. Add a heafty splash of olive oil, garlic, onions/ shallots, fennel, carrot, celery, potato, tomato paste, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and saffron to a pot on medium heat and cook until translucent. 

2. Prepare Rouille by pureeing lemon juice, garlic, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs in a food processor then slowly add olive oil. Place in a bowl and fold in green crab roe if using. Set aside for later. 

3. Add tomatoes, stock, and wine and cook until thickened. 

4. Lower the heat and add monkfish. Allow the monkfish to simmer for 4-5 minutes before adding mussels and green crab legs. 

5. Toast bread for crouton. 

6. After mussels have opened, remove fish, mussels, and green crab legs from the pot and place in a bowl. Ladle liquid over fish and shellfish and serve with Crouton topped with Rouille. Sprinkle with fennel fronds for garnish. 

This recipe was developed in partnership with Hooked Fish Shop for our free green crab pickup event on October 18th. To view Hooked X Greencrab.org cooking demo where we prepare this recipe, click the button below.