Julia Child's bouillabaisse

Mark Bittman writes about making Julia Child's bouillabaisse recipe:

I gently sauteed (the chefs would say “sweated”) leeks, onions, and garlic in a lot of olive oil. (There are those who argue that the most important element of this style of fish soup is the emulsion of olive oil in water, and that there must be plenty of the former.) To that I added parsley, thyme, basil, fennel seeds, and chopped tomatoes.

Then came 3 or 4 big, fresh and meaty skeletons of fish, and heads, roughly chopped. Am I forgetting anything? Water of course, and more olive oil, and I think I saw Bob sliding some Cointreau in there (we had no orange peel, always a nice addition). Cover and simmer for less than a half-hour. At that point I turned it off and left for an hour to allow it to steep and cool for a bit, then strained it and voila - as you see. Gorgeous, huh?

Now you can do whatever you like. We chose to add potatoes (noodles are good, too) and celery (and/or carrots, fennel is a natural also) then cooked it until they were almost tender, then added big chunks of white fish (nearly any seafood will “work”), while we made the garlicky-spicy mayonnaise called rouille and toasted some bread. But it’s all in the broth, and I must say Julia nailed that one.