If you've ever eaten a seafood dish at a restaurant and then tried to replicate it at home, only to find it's not as good, the secret ingredient you're probably missing is homemade fish stock. Dishes like seafood risotto, traditional French bouillabaisse, and even a flavorful clam chowder all taste better when you start with well-made stock you crafted yourself compared to anything you can buy in a grocery store. All you need are some leftover seafood shells or fish bones, herbs, and a few select veggies.
Just don't bother saving any extra hard shells from mussels and clams because they don't have any flavor. Stick to shrimp, lobster, and crab shells for shellfish stock and you'll always get a deep, rich flavor. Homemade seafood stock is an easy kitchen project with low investment and big returns.
You can make just a quart or two in an hour, and it uses up parts of fish that you were going to throw away anyway (a huge plus for combating food waste). Just remember to keep shellfish and fin fish ingredients separate for anyone with allergies in your life, and use it up or freeze it before it goes bad. Only certain shellfish shells make good stock There's not a lot of work or technique needed to make a pot of seafood stock, but it does take a little advance planning.
The hardest part is probably remembering to save your shrimp, lobster, and crab shells, which are the best for making seafood stock because they have a lot of flavor stored inside. That's because the shells of crust.
