Every great seafood dish that requires a stock deserves a homemade seafood stock. Once you’ve made your own and discovered the flavour it brings to the dish, you’ll never want to use a store-bought stock again. I’ve also found it pretty impossible to buy seafood stock. There is plenty of fish stock available, but not a glorious seafood stock that contains shellfish.
This recipe uses shells from prawns and mussels. I gather these after peeling or serving and then freeze them for when I want to make a stock. Yes, this stock is also ‘no-waste’ friendly! Note, that it does make your kitchen reek of seafood, so perhaps make it a couple days before you go to use it!
I always use this stock when I make Fideuà, which is a Spanish seafood dish, like a paella but with short noodles instead of rice. It’s so delicious, you really should try it!
Sensational Shellfish Seafood stock
15
minutes2
hours30
minutes6
cupsStop your screen from snoozing (zzz)
Ingredients
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 kg shellfish shells and heads (see notes)
1 brown onion, chopped
1 baby fennel, chopped, or 1 tsp fennel seeds
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
1 l arge carrot, chopped
1 c elery stick, chopped
1 cup (250ml) dry white wine (such as a chardonnay, pinot gris, pinot grigio or semillon)
8 cups (2L) water
3 fresh bay leaves
1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley (stems and leaves), chopped
3 thyme sprigs
1 tsp white or black peppercorns
Method
- Heat 1 tbs oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shellfish pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the shells turn red, if uncooked, and everything starts to caramelise. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Heat remaining oil in the pan. Add onion, fennel or fennel seeds, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the vegetables soften and start to caramelise. Return shellfish pieces to the pan. Stir in the wine and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the wine reduces by half.
- Stir water, bay leaves, parsley, thyme and peppercorns into the seafood mixture. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours or until reduced by about one-third, occasionally skimming any scum from the surface.
- Remove pan from the heat and cool slightly for about 10 minutes. In batches, strain the mixture through a fine wire mesh sieve into a large bowl, pushing the solids with the back of a large spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids. Cool stock and refrigerate, covered, until needed.
Notes
- Feel free to use either raw or cooked shells/heads for this stock, although raw shells would impart more flavour. Try a mix of any or all of these: prawn heads and shells, mussels, clams and crab.
- If you’re using shellfish that has been frozen, it will take a little longer to begin to caramelise in step 1.
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