Poor Man's Court Bouillon

Cajuns call it "Coo Be Yon" A court bouillon is a French poaching stock made from water and typical stock veggies - onion, carrots, celery - in which generally fish is cooked. But that's the French.

Down here in The Deep South, Courtbouillon {pronounced COO-bee-YON or COO-bee-ON} is a sort of roux-based, creole tomato sauce, stewed down and reduced, and most commonly used to poach redfish, though red snapper or catfish are fairly traditional also.

I came in the other evening, tired, had a lot of work to do once I got home, so I slugged along and got it done. Came dinner time, I'm wondering what to make, open the freezer there is some cod fillets, toss one in warm water to thaw, good enough,

Now, I'm thinking what am I going to do with this? Grill? Crush up some Cheetos and coat it? My tongue wanted something tomato-ey and the only thing I had was one little jar of Classico Pizza Sauce.

So I sauteed the cod in butter in a saucepan, then dumped in the pizza sauce, spiced it up with a big spoon of olive salad, and served it over angel hair spaghetti noodles. You know what? IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! Paired it up with some Luck's fried apples from the can also quite good, and a salad.

There you have it, poor man's coo-be-yon!

I have made court bullion a couple of times, many years ago. Interesting, and expensive. I had Coubion in my late teens, early 20s, when we got huge catfish we steaked out. We would cut a lot of the flesh off, save it for later, and boil the bones and meat and add the Cajun trilogy of onion, bell pepper, and celery with plenty of garlic . Add some tomatoes, salt and pepper, and cook till the vegetables were done. Add potatoes and carrots (Dad's variation), let cook til those are almost done, then add big chunks of catfish and cook for a few minutes, then cut off the heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Eat!

I've made this dish many times. It's one of my favorites.

Not one of my favorites, but it is good at times.

Sha cherie! I got a recipe off food network years ago for Emeril's court boullion recipe. I've used shrimp but I think you could poach a boot tongue in it and it would be good. After school, I lived in south Louisiana for a few years and I heard them talk about " coo be yon" but never had it there. Had to move back to Ala and finally cook it myself it was worth the wait!