Seafood Stock

Back on The Olympic Food Tour, and we can’t really stop in France without this recipe.  Or Spain, or Korea, or Brazil, or, or, or. I know you get what I am saying.

You may be asking, “Can’t I just buy this?”  I mean, I am not standing over you saying, “No you can’t!”  I will say this, yes, of course, you can buy this.  However, this is a really easy recipe to make, and it’s worth the small amount of effort. Plus, the fragrance is out of this world.

The most labor intensive part is the very beginning because you are chopping a lot of veg.  But you are chopping.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or uniform. So, turn the radio up and get to it.

For the mirepoix, I chopped one leek, including the green, two onions, three celery stalks, two shallots, and sliced five garlic cloves. 
Get out your biggest stock pot.  I used a 12 quart pot, which was perfect for this recipe.  On medium high heat, sweat these veggies.

Once the veg is in the pot, add in the bouquet.  I use this loosely because for this stock, I didn’t tie the herbs together.  I just threw them in there. I added in thyme, tarragon, bay leaf, and salt & pepper.

Minus the chopping, very little work has been done, and you cannot believe how fragrant this already is. This needs to sweat for a few minutes before adding in the shrimp shells.

So, where did I get these?  Well, peeled shrimp of course.  ? Back in the fall, I had at some point prepared shrimp, and saved the shells.  You don’t have shells?  Oh, don’t you worry.  You can purchase head on shrimp from the grocer or butcher, you can use frozen shrimp with the shell on, you can use frozen baby shrimp.  I think you get the idea, there are a lot of different options.

So far, in the pot, there is the mirepoix, bouquet, and shrimp shells. After sweating for five minutes, add in tomato paste, followed by white wine, and crushed tomatoes. There is nothing attractive about these photos, but the smells…..Mmmm. Mmmm. Good.

Up next, the mother of all fragrances – saffron. One large pinch. (Please note, this picture is showing more than the recipe calls for.)

Let’s take a time out for a second and have a chat about saffron.  What is saffron and why can it be so expensive?  Saffron threads, as they are commonly called, are the filaments in the saffron crocus or autumn crocus plant.  Each bloom only has three filaments.  My hand is probably holding a 100 plus flowers worth. Can you imagine harvesting these babies? That’s where the expense comes in.

This is a prime example of the difference between restaurant or professional kitchen versus home kitchen.  Chef buys saffron by the ounce. I buy saffron by the .02 ounce thanks to Trader Joe’s. (You can find saffron at several different food markets, and can purchase it online as well thru gourmet grocers.  I recommend checking out International Gourmet.)

Back to the stock.  Once you add in the crushed tomatoes, add the saffron, and a bit more salt and pepper. Stir to combine, and add one gallon of water. Bring to a boil, and than turn the heat down on the pot, to keep a simmer going for about an hour.

When the hour is up, move off the heat, and let cool.  Now, as it’s been pretty cold here, I have just put a lid on the pot and put the pot in my garage. If garage cooling isn’t an option, letting it sit on the stove for an hour is a-okay. When the hour is up, strain the stock.

Strain the stock.  Strain the the sauce.  Strain the demi-glacé. Chef long ago had line cook that he said,
“…and when it’s done, strain the demi-glace.” And that line cook did.  Right down the drain of the restaurant’s triple sink. I can laugh about it because the kitchen is where so many fails take place.  Undercook, overcook, burn, too spicy, too bland.  Things get dropped and spilled, and it’s the reality of being in any kitchen.  The heartbreak comes when you realize a recipe like demi-glacé that takes several days to make, has all gone down the kitchen sink.

I implore you – when you go to strain the stock, please make sure something is catching it that is not the kitchen drain.

This picture is worth about two words, but that stock.  OMG!  Once strained, you can discard the shells and veg.  This stock yields 3 1/2 to 4 quarts of stock. This can be kept in the fridge for five days, and frozen for six months.

Seafood Stock, yields 3 1/2 to 4 quarts of stock
Prep time 20 minutes, active cooking time 1 hour 20 minutes, inactive cooking time 1 hour
1 leek, trimmed, sliced
2 onions, halved and sliced
3 celery stalks, chopped, include the leaves too
1 shallot, sliced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
5 sprigs of thyme
5 sprigs of tarragon
3 bay leaves
2-3 T salt, divided
1 T pepper, divided
Shells from one pound of shrimp, or 1/2 pound of head on shrimp
1 T tomato paste
1 c white wine
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 pinch of saffron (I used .02 ounces, just as TJ’s sells it.)
1 gallon water

In a large stock pot over medium hight heat, sweat the leek, onions, celery, shallots, herbs and half the salt and pepper for three to four minutes.  Add the sliced garlic, and shrimp shells. After two minutes, add the tomato paste and white wine.  Combine.  Add the crushed tomatoes, saffron, and the second half of the salt and pepper. Cover with a gallon of water.  Bring to a boil.  Decrease the heat to low to maintain a simmer for one hour. Remove from the heat and let the stock cool for at least one hour, but not more than four before getting it in the refrigerator. Strain the stock thru a mesh sieve or colander into another pot, pan, bowl, but not down the drain of the kitchen sink. 
Store in air tight containers in the fridge for up to five days, or freeze up to six months.