I spent the last few days playing with shrimp.
And as a result, I have a nice great big freezer bag full of the shells and the tails that
I took off when I was cleaning and deveining them.
That's a good thing, and I'm going to show you why.
I am going to make shrimp stock.
And I love doing this because it's a freebie.
I mean, normally this stuff goes in the garbage.
Right?
Instead, we're going to use it to pull an amazing flavor trick, that's used in really
high-end restaurants all the time.
Now all I have here, see this?
This is the shells and the tails from about four pounds of shrimp.
And if you don't use that much at one time, it's not a big deal.
Stick what you do have in a freezer bag, put it in your freezer, and when you have enough
to work with, then you're ready to go.
It'll keep in the freezer for awhile.
Now over here, I have all of the other things that we're going to use to flavor our stock.
Big old carrot, chopped up, and a lot of celery.
Now, if you're using celery, I love to use the interior part of the celery.
There is a ton of fabulous fresh flavor on these little leaves that come in the middle.
So don't get rid of those.
Those are great.
And then this is about one and a half onions.
Just big old chunks.
And a big fat sprig of thyme.
Now I put this in here over medium heat, and I had melted about two tablespoons worth of
butter, and I'm going to add just a touch of oil down in there too.
And all we're going to do at this point is saute this off.
What you want to do is develop the flavors that are in the shells and in the vegetables.
I guess we're going to give this about 10 to 12 minutes.
And this is all I'm going to do at this point, to sit here and cook it.
So when there's something to look at, I'll bring you back and show you what it is.
I don't think we even had ten minutes pass when I said it took about ten minutes.
No, it didn't even take that long.
All you're looking for is for your shrimp shells to turn that same pretty pink that
a fresh shrimp does when you cook it.
Can you come see what I got in here?
Remember all that's in here is a little bit of butter and a little bit of oil.
See?
So this is it.
Your vegetables are beginning to get shiny.
They're releasing perspiration.
They're glowing.
And you need to smell it.
Always, you can tell so much about your food from the fragrances.
And this tells me, very shrimpy smell, this tells me it's ready for the next step.
Now a stock is a fabulous thing.
It's one of the best tricks you can have in the kitchen, because you've got concentrated
amazing flavor.
Now I've used a can of bottled stuff sometimes, because I just don't make enough to use up
or to meet my own needs.
However, when I have the opportunity, I make my own and there is nothing like it.
In this particular instance, you can use a shrimp stock as the basis for any sort of
seafood preparation you want.
So if you want to make chowder, if you want to make a bisque, if you want to make a shrimp
pot pie, any of those things, you want this as your flavor base.
It's unbelievable.
All right.
So at this point, all I'm going to do is get a couple things in here that will help release
the fond off the bottom.
And remember fond is French for the stuff that stick to the bottom.
You want that.
That's free flavor.
So this is about a half a cup of white wine.
Any particular type, as long as it's something that you're willing to drink.
And this is just about half a shot of brandy.
Now if you don't want to use alcohols, you don't have to.
I do like the flavor that they impart.
The alcohol, mostly burns off.
You're always going to have the tiniest fraction of a fraction left, but most of the alcohol
burns off.
However, if you don't want to use it, substitute just a little bit of chicken broth.
So you would want maybe half cup of chicken broth.
And that will let you get down in here and start scraping up all those pretty bits from
the bottom.
You want those dissolved in your stock, not thrown away when you wash the pan.
And then about two quarts of water.
You just need to cover everything that's in that pan.
That's about perfect.
Almost done.
We're going to give it a big pinch of kosher salt, maybe a tablespoon.
And at this point we're going to bring it up to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and we're
going to keep it on a bare simmer, probably about 45 minutes.
And at that point everything in here will be released, everything that it has, into
the liquid.
So we're going to strain it at that point and we'll almost be ready to go.
So I'm going to boiling, turn it back down to a simmer, and I'll be back.
All right.
We've let our shrimp stock simmer for 45 minutes or so.
Come in here and take a look.
This is what you want to see.
See this?
Your veggies have all gotten soft and done all their thing, and that big sprig of thyme
has released all of it's leaves into the stock pot.
That's perfect.
That's exactly what we want.
Now a lot of times when you're making stock, you can simmer a stock for hours, and the
longer you simmer, the thicker and richer it gets.
However, when you're talking about seafood stocks, there really seems to be a limit as
to what you can get out of it.
So, when I've made beef stock, and I'll show you that eventually, when I've made beef stock,
there have been times when I have set it back here, in my great big pot back here, which
is currently full of Easter eggs getting ready, I've let it go all day.
However, with the seafood stock, you just don't have to put that kind of time and effort
into it.
It doesn't seem to get you that much reward after a certain point.
So, all you want to do now is strain it off.
And I won't make you watch all of this, but I'll show you this much of it.
When you've got it in your strainer, press it down.
You want every last little bit of yummy that's going to come out of those veggies.
Okay?
So can you see it?
Come on in here.
Come on in.
Take a look.
See that?
Squish it.
And you see, you're going to get a lot more additional flavor out of it.
Now, it's a lot less important, here's what you're going to end up with.
And now at this point, I'm actually going to turn around and put it through a little
higher mesh strainer right here, just so it will be absolutely clean and perfect, but
you want, I wish I could show you.
You see, it's almost thick.
It has thickened just a tiny bit, and that's also exactly what you want.
So, all I'm going to do at this point is finish straining off my veggies.
I'll run it through my little wire mesh strainer so that it's perfectly clear, and once more,
I'll show you what it looks like when we're done.
All righty then, I've strained it all through the big strainer, and I squished it real good,
and then I ran it back through the wire mesh strainer.
And if you want to, I've got, maybe, ten little bitty tiny leaves of thyme still floating
around in my stock.
Frankly, that's fine.
By the time I'm finished with it, nobody will know.
If you want it absolutely crystal clear, run it through a couple layers of cheesecloth
a time or two and it will actually be golden beautiful.
But in this case we have this luscious golden broth, and this tastes like the distilled
essence of shrimp.
It is absolutely out of this world.
Now it's ready to be a flavor base for whatever I want it to be.
And in this case, I'm not going to do a chowder or a stew, or a pot pie, or a [inaudible 00:08:50],
or any of those other things.
I am going to make shrimp bisque.
I have a bunch of shrimp still in my fridge, ready to go.
And that's my next step.
But that's all there is to making a seafood stock.
You can do it with any kind of shellfish exactly the same way, or you can do it with lovely
whitefish if you happen to have the bones, the head, and all that kind of stuff.
It's worth keeping.
Don't throw it away.
Give yourself the tools of the kitchen to just be a rock star.
So there you go.
Shrimp stock.