NCFC:Recipes/Fish stock

A hybrid creation (a little Nourishing Traditions, a little Penelope Casas and a little Patricia Wells)

Fish carcasses can be had free from a fish monger. Sometimes they'll give you a batch with oily fish. If you have enough to separate them, do. For the mineral-rich stock, you need non-oily fish.

For cooking on a budget based on a certain amount of free ingredients, you can make a broth using half oily (like mackerel or salmon) and half non-oily fish (whiting, turbot, sole, flounder) by only cooking the recipe below for 45-50 minutes instead of 3 hours and then use it as "clam juice," since bottled clam juice is what it tastes like. Seafood and rice dishes in Penelope Casas' The Foods and Wines of Spain call for fish broth or clam juice. Clam juice isn't as gelatinous and full of minerals as fish stock.

1 carcass non-oily fish (whiting, turbot, sole, flounder), head on
Splash of raw organic apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 stalk celery or 1/2 stalk lovage, coarsely chopped, including leaves 1 sprig fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried
1 medium onion
1 small carrot, scraped and cut in half
1/2 fat fennel bulb, well-washed and cut in half
6 peppercorns
Salt

If fennel isn't available, use fennel seeds in a bouquet garni with the thyme and add 1/2 stalk of chopped lovage (also called "parcelery") or 1 stalk of chopped celery to the stock.

To make the broth, place all ingredients in a saucepan, let stand 30 minutes to an hour for the vinegar to draw minerals out of the bones, then bring to a boil. Skim any scum. Cover and simmer 3 hours. Cool and strain.