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Sea fish seafood vegetable

Movida Shellfish Fumet

Our Shellfish fumet came about almost by accident. Frank was supposed to be in the kitchen at Navarrico perfecting Romesco recipes, instead he got distracted by the seafood stock that was happening around him. Text messages started flying back to Melbourne from Navarra along the lines of 'We have to get this - its freaking delicious, do you know how many prawns we'd need to do this in Australia??!!' What we learnt later is that Frank had seen the giant heads of the incredibly sweet and rather beautiful Carabinero prawns which were being infused into fish stock. In culinary worlds these prawns are one of the highlights of Spain, the deep red colour and incredible flavour make them a prime contender for the best prawn in the world. But the inclusion of their shells and heads in what was already a really good stock elevates this to another level. It's based on a classic fish stock - cod and hake bones are roasted before being simmered for hours with tomatoes, white wine and giant squid. The stock is then finish with fresh red prawn heads, leeks, garlic and paprika. The result is an incredibly rich, full flavoured fumet.

Primarily we got it with paella in mind but it's amazing in most things that call for fish stock. Although it's intensity pushes it more towards the rustic and hearty side of seafood than the light and delicate - think of the style of seafood soups of the Catalan coast like Zarzuela or Romesco de Peix. If you really want to go the whole nine yards it's the best stock we've found for recreating the deeply flavoured Arroz con Bogavante (Lobster rice) from our favourite seaside restaurant, Toc al Mar, just north of Barcelona - there's a recipe for it in Jose Pizarro's wonderful Catalan cookbook or you can try throwing it into Frank's recipe for Andalucian Arroz Cangrejo from MoVida Solera cookbook.