Instructions: To make the broth, peel and chop the onions, leeks, shallots, celeriac, carrots, parsnips, chopped tomatoes, and garlic. Put the vegetables in a pot with 3 quarts of water.

Add the remaining broth ingredients and simmer the broth slowly for 1 hour, skimming when necessary and correcting the seasoning in the last 15 minutes. Then strain and cool the broth quickly.

To make the spice blend, put all the spices in a coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder.

To cook the bass, heat one cup of broth in a shallow pan. Cut the fillet into 4 portions. Season it with the blend of spices and the salt and cilantro. Place fillets in the broth and poach the bass, spooning the broth over the fish, until it is snowy white on the outside and just cooked and translucent in the middle, about 5 minutes.

Heat 3 cups of broth in another pot. Add the lemon zest, orange zest, thinly sliced and blanched vegetables, cayenne, and herbs. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the fish fillets in 4 heated, wide soup plates, ladle over some of the vegetables and herb broth, and garnish with herb tops.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Suggested Wine: Champagne Veuve Cliquot Brut, Reserve, 1988

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