Crustacean carcasses, part 1

The Easter feast my parents threw didn’t only see typical Swedish Easter food like eggs and pickled herring, but also lovely Norway lobster, in culinary context know as Scampi. We also had some nice shrimp.

Eating these creatures means there will be a lot of shells left over which can be used to make stock, so I pilfered them. Lets get to it! Remember that making stock is a process that can’t really be hurried, so cancel your meetings.

First the shells are given a quick  sizzle in some oil while cracking and crushing them a bit with a potato masher or similar, in order to release more flavour.  This is about a pound and a half of shells – the shells of six large Norway lobsters and an unknown number of shrimp.

Add some onions, carrots, leeks, parsnip and fennel.

Next we add four liters of water and as much white wine as one can spare. Bring to boil and let it simmer.

This is what it looks like after simmering for an hour. If one needs something to do, skimming excess oil off is a good idea, but I didn’t bother.

Now it’s been simmering for a total of three hours and the flavors have developed quite nicely. It’s time to get ride of all the bits and pieces.

Straining the stock. I cut a piece from  an old pillowcase which worked quite nice. Next step is reducing the stock to a more manageable volume.

Half an hour of fairly gentle simmering later and the stock has been reduced by a third or so. Now a bit of seasoning might be a good idea, but go easy on the salt if the plan is to reduce further.

Here’s the final result, cooling off in a cold water bath. I decided to call it a day when the stock had reduced to a little over half a liter which is a volume that fits easily in the freezer.

Four to five hours of work for a pint of lobster/shrimp stock is an average time frame I’d say. I’m stowing it away for use in some kind of soup or stew later on, which is why this post was designated ‘part 1’.