Creamy fish stew

[yady]

Originally posted on LiveJournal

I've done things like this more often, usually improvising, but this time it turned out so well that I thought I'd better write it down. Sadly, no picture, as it was all eaten before I thought of that.

For two people:

Ingredients

• Quick cook basmati rice for 2 people (how much that is depends rather on the people involved)
  
• Salt
  
• 1 stalk celery
  
• 1/2 carrot
  
• 1 small onion
  
• 1 clove of garlic
  
• 100 g white button mushrooms
  
• 2 tomatoes
  
• 1 glass dry white wine
  
• 2 different frozen fillets of fish (I used salmon and tilapia)
  
• 125 ml creme fraiche
  
• 125 gram shrimp
  
• 1 tablespoon dried dill
  
• 1 teaspoon paprika
  
• 1 teaspoon stock powder
  
• Olive oil
  
• 400-500 g fennel bulbs
  

Put the rice in a small pan. Add 1.5 times its volume in cold water. Put on the lid.

Chop the celery into moons, the onion into quarter rings and the carrot into quarter slices. Thinly slice the garlic. Heat a little oil in a large skillet that has a lid and lightly fry the chopped vegetables for a couple of minutes.

Add a little salt to the rice and give a quick stir. Put it on medium heat. Keep half an eye on it, once it boils (you'll be able to tell even with the lid closed), you need to turn the heat down to the lowest, place a flame divider between the hob and the pan (if cooking on gas, no clue how this works for electric), stir the rice once more and replace the lid.

Slice the mushrooms and add them to the other veg. Fry until just not raw any more. Chop the tomatoes, removing the hard part where the crown used to be, and add them to the other veg. Fry a little more, until they start to fall apart. Then add the wine, give a stir, place the frozen fish on top and close the lid.

After a few minutes, the fish should be thawed and partially done. Pull apart the bits that already flake easily. Replace the lid.

Now, chop the fennel. Heat some more oil in another skillet. Add the fennel.

Remove the lid from the fish pan. The fish should be pretty much done by now and at the very least you should be able to pull all of it apart into flakes. Do so. Add the stock powder and stir carefully. Leave the lid off now, to allow some moisture to evaporate, but turn the heat down.

Give the fennel a stir.

Once you are sure that all the bits of fish are done, the rice has absorbed all the water and the fennel is (nearly) to your liking, turn off the heat under the fish pan. To this pan, add the shrimp, the cream, the dill and the paprika. Stir.

Serve immediately.