Bouillabaisse

When we had this beautiful French seafood stew/soup it was in the traditional Marseille way. And it was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted; it was so good I was almost turned from Italian favouritism to French. But the tiramisu making on the same day brought me back to reality. Oh there goes gravity. Oh he's so mad but he...
I didn't dream of deviating from such a classic fancy dish, but one thing I didn't know was who to trust. There was only one book I went with the end. It is perhaps the best that ended up in my many piles of cookbooks I get for Christmas or Birthdays, and it is from my Great Uncle John, who is a fantastic cook with an Italian background. The New Concise Larousse Gastronomique. To begin with, I was put off from it because I was only 11 and it had an intimidating 1300 pages and brick-weight, but having looked at it now with it's encyclopedic detail on French cuisine I knew I needed to make something from it. Bouillabaisse seemed like a great start.
This is fairly easy to do, but it's not fast, it's not cheap and it's not everyday, so choose a good time to make it.
1)In a large, wide casserole dish, place 2 small chopped onions, 1 small peeled chopped carrot, 1 skinned finely chopped beef tomato (to skin tomatoes easily just make a cross on the bottom and put them in a bowl of boiling water), 3 to 4 minced garlic cloves, 1 sprig of fennel or dill, 1 small bunch of parsley, 1 sprig of thyme, a bay leaf and a piece of orange rind. Mix together and add about 800g of mixed fish and shellfish. I used mussels and clams, haddock, plaice and lemon sole and some raw king prawns. If they're not skinned you can do this by using a small serrated knife, holding a piece at the bottom of the fish and sawing very slowly along the bottom of it until the fish lifts off the skin. Do NOT throw any skin or head or tail away, you will need it later. Mix them with the veg with some good virgin olive oil to moisten, some fresh salt and pepper and a good pinch of saffron (see what I mean about not cheap?). Leave it covered in a cool place to marinate for a few hours.
2)In the meantime, use the skin to boil in some fish stock. This stock really makes the final result, so buy as good stock you can.
3)Remove the shellfish and prawns from the pot, and then cover the rest with the stock. Boil rapidly for 7 minutes, before tumbling in the remaining fish for about 3 minutes, until the shellfish open. If they don't open at all bin them, as they are no good.
4)Serve it with all the bay and herbs and orange, as it's too much work and waste to take them out and serve with some delicious fresh French bread.