Rosie Makes A Lobster Stock. Part 1 of 2. Good Tidings To Come.

Thursday evening, I needed to make a seafood stock for a special luncheon on Friday.

As luck would have it, I had some lobster shells in my freezer in the utility room, thanks to the ever thoughtful Xmaskatie. When she and Mr. Xmaskatie house- and Dixie-sat for us back in February '09, they had lobster for their Valentine Dinner. I was away at Maxine's, as I was the year previously, having a romantic dinner with her, while Mr. Hawthorne was with his mother, for her birthday. Xmaskatie was kind enough to put the lobster shells from their dinner in a freezer bag for me and stick them in the deep freeze.

Here are the frozen lobster shells.

I crushed up the lobster shells with a rolling pin and put them in a deep pot, covering with an inch of water.

Slowly heat the shells over medium to medium high heat and as soon you see little bubbles coming up to the surface, reduce the heat to low. Do NOT let it boil. You want to keep it at below a simmer - just a few bubbles coming up to the surface. Do NOT stir. Stirring and excessive bubbling muddies up your stock. As the bubbles surface, a scummy foam develops on the surface. Skim the foam away. The foam comes from the shells releasing impurities in the water as the temperature increases. Cook the shells like this for an hour, skimming the foam every few minutes. I used cheese cloth wrapped around a slotted spoon. After an hour of skimming and barely bubbling, I added my aromatics.

I have an onion, a carrot, a celery, fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley, and 3 fresh bay leaves. If you're using dried herbs, cut back. Dried herbs are more powerful than fresh, so adjust accordingly.

I left the herbs whole and tied them up in cheese cloth, making a bouquet garni.

There's the little bundle of herbs at top right, minus the one bay leaf I missed at bottom right, and continuing clockwise, sliced onions, peppercorns, sliced carrots and celery.

I added the bouquet garni and the peppercorns ..

... then the onion, celery, and carrot.

about a cup of white wine..

maybe 2 tablespoons tomato paste.

I brought it barely to the simmer, then let a few bubbles up every few seconds. Thirty more minutes of infusing these flavors. And skimming. And if you notice, there's not so much to skim through this last part as the impurities have pretty much been bubbled out.

After a total 90 minutes, I had Mr. Hawthorne pour the lobster stock through an intricate system of sieves and dampened cheese cloth I had devised.

And I had a quart of lobster stock. Stay tuned for what this baby went into. Part 2. Coming soon to a computer near you.