Cookbook:Waterzooi

Waterzooi is a classic stew in Northern Belgian cuisine. Its name is Dutch, meaning "watery mess".

The original form uses fish, though today chicken waterzooi is more common, as well as vegetables such as carrots, leeks, and potatoes, as well as herbs, eggs, cream, and butter. Typically, fish such as eel, pike, carp and bass are used. Other fish such as cod, monkfish, or halibut can be used. Both the chicken and fish versions are based on an egg yolk and cream-thickened vegetable broth and usually served as a soup with a baguette to sop up the liquid. Gentse Waterzooi is a specific version of the dish without fish but with chicken.

Ingredients

 * 500 g fish of choice
 * 75 g butter (unsalted)
 * 5 L vegetable or fish stock
 * 1 leek, cleaned and julienned
 * 2 carrots, julienned
 * 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm pieces
 * Bay leaf
 * 10 black peppercorns
 * 1 egg yolk
 * 2.5 L double cream
 * Salt

Procedure

 * 1) Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add vegetables, bay leaf, and peppercorns then sauté for a few minutes.
 * 2) Stir in the butter, then cook for 5 minutes without allowing the vegetables to brown.
 * 3) Add stock and bring to boil.
 * 4) Add fish, reduce the heat, and let simmer for 10 minutes.
 * 5) Remove fish and cut into pieces.
 * 6) Temper 200 ml of the stock into the egg yolk, stirring to prevent curdling. Stir the mixture back into the pot along with the cream, and bring the mixture back to just below boiling.
 * 7) Add fish and taste everything for flavour, adding salt as required.
 * 8) Serve in shallow bowls.

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