Seafood Stock for Gumbo

Ingredients:

Use any combo of what you have on hand.

Shrimp Shells, & Heads if you have them

Fish backbones

Fish heads, full of plenty-good flavor!

Onion

Celery

Garlic

Carrot

Parsley, stems and tops

Potato Skins

Throw everything in a big deep pot.  Cover with a generous amount of water.  Bring to a boil and then turn down, and simmer slowly for a long time, think hours.  As it cooks down, it will get more flavorful.  When you think it is cooked down enough, strain the broth carefully making sure no fish bones slip through into the finished stock.  Don’t add any salt or pepper until the stock is entirely cooked down.  Use what you need, and freeze the remainder of the stock for later use.

• Always ask to keep the fish head and backbone of wild-caught seafood when you are having something filleted at the fish market.  Freeze them when you get home for making stock later.

• If your backbones have a lot of meat on them, you may want to pull the meat off, so you can add it to the soup or gumbo later.  Carefully remove any bones, because choking on a fish bone is no fun.

• If you’re in a hurry, don’t add as much water to the stockpot, cook as long as you have time for, and figure that whatever you end up with will be more flavorful than plain water…it’s all good.

• At least two Tailgate Markets have seafood that comes directly off the boats in coastal NC, and is driven straight here for our eating pleasure.
  


Just Before Straining