Norwitz Notions

The same day I bought vegetables for two new ferments, I also got some salmon for dinner. It was a halved fish but the Whole Foods fish folks will cut it to order for free. I asked them to make me fillets and to save the tail and spine and other usable parts for stock. The fish monger even put them in two different packages for me.

So I put some filtered water in a pot and added the fish extras and started to simmer it on low heat. As I cut vegetables for my pickled red onions and kim chee, I threw in the trimmings: onions, leeks, napa cabbage, daikon radish, and a few extras from the red and green cabbage I roasted to serve with the fish fillets for dinner. I threw in some bay leaves and salt and two squeezed out lemon halves.

I let it simmer very low for a couple of hours then I turned off the heat to go to bed. It would have been hard to make enough room in the fridge for the pot, so I left it covered on the stove. I thought I’d finish it the next morning.

My mistake. I didn’t get to it until evening. Because of that, I decided that I needed to bring the stock to a boil just in case something bad had been growing. When I tasted the stock the night before, it was delicious. Unfortunately, the boiling killed some of the flavor along with any buggies. It was still good, don’t get me wrong, but the fish had a slight overcooked flavor. Very usable, it just could have been better.

I let it cool a bit then ran it through a strainer (just a plain colander; I didn’t mind a few bits coming through to the broth). The strained bits went into the compost (after removing some skin and other yummies for the cats) and the broth went into glass jars, 1-2 pints each. I made sure to leave a good inch of headroom and I just placed the lids on top without tightening as I put them into the freezer. Once frozen, I tightened the lids.

I’ve made soup with the frozen broth twice and it was great. The most recent time I was recovering from the flu and had minimal energy so I took a sealed frozen jar, put it into a pot with some hot tap water and left until it was pourable. I emptied the pot and put the soup in. I just added some mushrooms (not sure what kind, but not ordinary white or brown) we got from our CSA (sliced), some extra firm tofu chunks, and a bit of seasoning. Wonderful and it was exactly what I needed.