Fish Stock

All it takes to make fish stock is to add a fish carcass to the vegetables when you make a vegetable stock.

So, the ingredients are:

3 quarts plus 2 cups water

2 cups white wine

1/2 cup Champagne vinegar

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 fennel bulb, including fronds, trimmed and coarsely chopped

1/2 celery stalk, coarsely chopped

1 head garlic, top third sliced off

1 leek, coarsely chopped

6 sprigs fresh tarragon

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leave

1 tablespoon black peppercorns.

That is what you could use for a vegetable stock. Now add at least 2 pounds of fish bones and trimmings (fish heads and scrap pieces of fish) to the vegetable stock at the beginning, before the heat is put to the stock pot.

 Combine all the ingredients in a large stockpot. bring it to a simmer and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth into a heatproof container set in an ice bath. discard the solids. Cool the stock in the ice bath. Transfer chilled stock to airtight container(s). Refrigerate the stock until you are ready to use it. The stock can also be frozen for up to 2 months. 

Ok, so, here are the pictures! First, the ingredients (missing the fresh thyme):

Notice the fish on the left? The fish monger was having a sale on Alaskan king salmon today. So, bought a whole one and when he fillet it, I told him I wanted the whole fish. So, we got some great fillets along with a carcass!

Here is the carcass: 

Here's all the ingredients in the stockpot, prior to the heat: 

And here is the cheesecloth, over a strainer, over a bowl, over the ice bath, waiting to strain the stock:

Back to the stock! Here it is, just getting up to a simmer. The foam is the indicator that it is at a simmer.

And, here it is, 45 - 60 minutes later, ready to be strained:

And, here it is being strained! 

And, here is the strained stock, ready to be placed in air tight jars:













And here it is in the jars, still in the ice bath, cooling off, before the lids are placed on it and then into the freezer.

Actually, that wasn't all of it. I took two servings and placed it into a pan to heat up. Into that, I tossed some noodles, some cream that I had at a simmer, and some grated Parmesan cheese. That was lunch!