CHEF MARS' STOCKS PRIMER

**A RECIPE FOR: FISH STOCK**
QUANT.	UNIT	INGREDIENT	PREPARATION
Also know as "Fond de Poissons" and "Fumet de Poisson". Essential to making a seafood sauce, this stock is produced quite quickly once your mise-en-place is ready. Poaching fish or shellfish in a fish stock greatly enhances flavor. If you use the correct fish bones your stock will be high in natural gelatin content, so if you reduce it you can end up with a great seafood base, essence or refined inot a fish aspic to garnish classical dishes. Fish Stock is often used in seafood soups and chowders, lobster consomme and classical seafood sauces like a Veloute, Cardinal, Thermidor or Newburgh and many more.
Fish stock, is the most delicate and perishable of all the stocks and ideally, should be made the same day you will use it. Once again make sure you use bones that come from white fleshed fish. There are both white wine and red wine versions of this stock. the red wine versions is seldomly used however. When using white wine make sure it is one of very good quality or the stock may pick up a grey color. Dry Vermouth is my favorite. (Noilly Prat)
12	Lbs.	fish bones and trimmings	Chop the bones to the correct size then wash the bones and trimmings very thoroughly under cold running water. Heat the olive oil, and add the mirepoix and mushroom trimmings and sweat, over a low flame, stirring frequently. The pan can be covered. This should take no more than five minutes. Add the washed fish bones and trimmings, cover with the cold water, lemon juice and the vermouth. Make a bouquet garni by placing the parsley, celery stalk, thyme, bay leaf and white peppercorns in a piece of cheesecloth, then tie with a piece of kitchen twine. Slowly bring to a simmer and then add the bouquet garni. Simmer for no more than 30 minutes making sure you skim the surface frequently to remove the "scum of impurities" and any grease. When the stock is reduced and the flavor is well developed, strain it carefully through a coarse sieve and then a fine one (chinois) or through cheesecloth. Once passed you can reduce the stock separately to your desired consistency and taste or....... Add salt to taste if desired and ........ Cool correctly, identify, label and date, cover and refrigerate.
2	ozs.	olive oil
1	bottle	dry vermouth
2	ozs.	fresh lemon juice
1	gallon	water
4	ozs	chopped shallots
4	ozs.	chopped leeks, white only
4	ozs.	chopped celery
10	ozs	fresh mushroom trimmings
1	stalk	celery
1	small sprig	fresh thyme
3	sprigs	fresh parsley
1	each	bay leaf
3	each	whole white peppercorns
-	to taste	salt
NOTE: Yield is 1 gallon.

TIPS:
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White fleshed fish:
Use sole, turbot, flounder, halibut, brill, sea perch, haddock or whiting. These will produce a very flavorful stock with no acrid taste. You can also use the skin, if the scales have been removed. My undisputed favorite are bones from Dover Sole as they produce a stock with the best flavor and clarity. The head contributes a lot of flavor so make sure it is included.

As a NOTE: in ** principle only**, the bones, head and trimmings of the actual fish being prepared should be used.

Fish bones and trimmings:
Use sole, turbot, flounder, halibut, brill, sea perch, haddock or whiting. These will produce a very flavorful stock with no acrid taste. You can also use the skin, if the scales have been removed. My undisputed favorite are bones from Dover Sole as they produce a stock with the best flavor and clarity. The head contributes a lot of flavor so make sure it is included.

Simmer gently:
the more slowly the stock cooks the clearer the stock will be, even more so in this case, because if you simmer your chicken stock slowly and form no more than 4 hours you should get a clear clear end result.

As a NOTE: in ** principle only**, the bones, head and trimmings of the actual fish being prepared should be used.