Tag: Italian

Crustacean Stock

Browning some Balmain bugs heads for a stock.

Hi mum, hi sisters. Thank you for being my only readers, although you certainly do not need me to explain to you in a foreign language what you can find in most Italian cookbooks. Today we continue our fundamentals series, by adding the crustacean stock to the list. As I said before, a good stock is key to a restaurant-level dish.

There are several ways to make this recipe, some methods being more complex than others. I like this version, because it gives the maximum result with the minimum effort:

  1. Start by removing the shell and head from the crustaceans.
  2. Prepare a pan with a thin layer of extra-virgin olive oil on a medium-high flame.
  3. Once the oil is hot (you can check by throwing a breadcrumb in to see if it fries), put the shells and the heads in the pan and brown them. The more you brown them, the stronger the flavour. In any case, it is a matter of 5-10 minutes maximum.
  4. After this, splash them with brandy (or another sweet liquor) and set it alight (flambé). Once the fire wanes, add cold water. Be sure to add enough water to cover the shells and heads completely. Any extra water will only dilute your stock.
  5. If you don’t have cognac/brandy or you don’t feel comfortable with the flambé, pour half a glass (approx.) of white wine and let it evaporate, then cover with water as described above.
  6. Right after pouring the cold water, you may choose to add herbs to the stock (see bouquet garni). I prefer to enhance the delicate flavour of the crustacean as much as possible, without adding anything extra.
  7. Allow the stock to gently boil (sobbollire) for half an hour (minimum) and then filter. You have your stock!
Browning prawn heads for another instance of crustacean stock.

Now, as you can see in the pictures above, I like making this recipe with the heads only. This is because I generally make this stock in preparation for a seafood pasta and I prefer to cook the tails with their shells on when preparing the sauce.

As a side-note, there is a trick for the lazy and for the late. If you are making a seafood pasta, just put the shells in the same boiling salted water in which you will later cook the pasta. They will release their flavour while you prepare the rest of the sauce!

See you in a few days with more about how to make a beautiful sauce with this stock!

Calamari alla diavola: a devilish approach to squid

The bottarga, trust me, is nice and dessicated in my fridge. While I wait for the right occasion to make the spaghetti bottarga (apologies for the delay), I want to show you a classic simple recipe for cooking calamari. Any kind of squid can be used. I used Loligo squid recently and had excellent results. When purchasing the squid, make sure that the skin is not peeling off: it’s a sure sign of freshness.

Start by cleaning the squid. Stick your fingers up in its “head” (yep), and empty it. Then pull the “bone” out. Finally, carve the eyes out. Remove the beak at the intersection of the tentacles. I usually separate the head from the tentacles in this process. Leave the skin on. Then:

  1. Make a soffritto with a rosemary branch, a clove of garlic and abundant chilli (it’s meant to be spicy). This means heating up extra-vigin olive oil in a pan on a medium flame, then adding these ingredients to lightly fry without burning;
  2. Put the squid on the pan. It takes only 4-5 minutes in total to cook. As soon as it changes colour, pour half glass of white wine (or less) and let it evaporate. Heat should be medium-high.
  3. When the wine has evaporated and the 4-5 minutes are over, you are done!

If you find it hard to chew, you might have overcooked it. In that case, you can either get over it, or put it back on the pan and cook it on low heat for another 40 minutes, approximately. After a prolonged time, your squid will be soft again, although it will lose its texture.

Fish stock: a simple secret for outstanding dishes

Making a stock instead of buying an industrial one is easy, cost-efficient and it gives a sensible edge to your dishes. In his Oltre il Fornello (Beyond the stove), Gualtiero Marchesi describes how to make it.

  1. Wash the fish head (removed of its gills) and bones thoroughly, thus removing most of the blood;
  2. Grease up a pot with butter and put some finely chopped veggies in it (e.g. leeks or onions) to sweat, as in to release their liquids without getting brown. Make sure that the flame must be low enough to allow this.
  3. After that (no need to wait), add the head and bones too (chop them if possible), so they can sweat and dry up as well;
  4. Once their liquids from from fish and veggies have evaporates, add half a cup of white wine (or more if you feel it is not enough);
  5. After the white wine has evaporated, cover with water and add herbs. These are usually a bouquet garni, aka parsley’s stems, a little thyme branch and a piece of bay leaf.
  6. Let it boil for half an hour and frequently remove them foam emerging on the surface (or foam it);
  7. Before filtering it, push vigorously on the carcass and on the veggies so as release all their juices.

A final note: different classes of fish are best suited for different types of fish stock. The tastiest ones (e.g. red mullet, scorpion fish) are well-suited for soup-oriented fish stock. Flatheads are one of the midrange options, making a great all-round stock. Avoid the most delicate specimens such as sea breams, sea bass and freshwater fishes; they don’t provide much flavour.

Your fish stock is now ready to give flavour to soups, sauces and even baked fish! Do not salt it, as you will put salt in the final dish that your stock is being used for. Do not exceed in the use of veggies and herbs: they are not the protagonists. Freeze the stock if you want to it to last for longer.

How to make Bottarga from fish roe

Yesterday, at Sydney’s Fish Market, the fish roe caught my attention. I bought it at 35 AUD/kilo (approx. 10 AUD each) thinking something tasty would have come from it. Once at home, I decided to research how bottarga is made. Chef Stefano Barbato explains the surprisingly simple recipe on YouTube (in Italian).

  1. Cover the fish roe in salt in a box;
  2. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 days;
  3. It’s ready: you can make beautiful and easy spaghetti with bottarga!

I will soon show you my results and make a post about spaghetti with bottarga, something to die for.