M01Kerala Garam Masala
The southern register — aromatic, not earthy
M13
Fish Stock from Heads and Frames
The free ingredient in every fishmonger's bin
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringA lever no traditional Kerala recipe uses and every Kerala recipe benefits from. A fish curry built on stock rather than water carries body and savour that would otherwise have come from oil and coconut milk, at effectively no calories. Ask for the frames; they are usually free.
The free ingredient in every fishmonger's bin [LOW SODIUM]
Kerala cooks the whole fish and always has — meen thala curry, fish head in the toddy shop, small backwater fish eaten bones and all. What Kerala does not traditionally do is extract those heads and frames into a stock and cook with it, and it is the cheapest upgrade in this book. Twenty-five minutes, no salt, and a litre of liquid that makes the next three curries taste as though they were simmered for an hour.
Before you start: Rinse the frames under cold running water until no blood comes away, 2–3 minutes. Blood is what makes fish stock bitter and cloudy, and nothing later removes it.
Fish Stock from Heads and Frames
Active 10 minutes Total 40 minutes
Scale
1 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓800 g fish heads and frames from white fish — seer, kingfish, pearl spot, snapper, bream
- ✓1.5 litres cold water
- ✓60 g (about 6) shallots, halved
- ✓20 g (a 4 cm piece) ginger, sliced
- ✓1 green chilli, slit
- ✓2 sprigs curry leaves
- ✓4 g (½ tbsp) black peppercorns, lightly crushed
- ✓No salt. The stock may be reduced later, and salting now removes that choice.
Allergens: Fish.
Equipment: Wide heavy 4-litre pan; fine sieve. Do not use an unglazed clay pot: the fish flavour will move into the wall and into every curry you cook in it afterwards.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Rinse the frames thoroughly and pull out the gills and any dark viscera.
- Cover with the cold water and bring to a bare simmer over a medium flame, . Cold water and slow heating are what keep a stock clear.
- Skim the grey foam for the first , until what rises is clean.
- Add the shallots, ginger, chilli, curry leaves and pepper. Simmer, never boiling, with a bubble breaking every second or two, . Past the bones give up bitterness and the collagen turns glue-like.
- Strain through a fine sieve without pressing the solids — pressing clouds it — and cool uncovered before refrigerating.
Why this worksFish frames are rich in collagen, which hydrolyses to gelatine at around 60–70°C (140–160°F) and gives the stock a body you can feel on the lips. That body is what a low-oil curry is usually missing, and it costs nothing. The short simmer is not laziness: fish bone is thin, gives up its flavour fast, then keeps going and gives up what you do not want.
Sourcing note
White-fleshed fish only. Oily fish — mackerel, sardine, tuna — make a stock that is strong, grey and fishy in the wrong way, and their fat oxidises within a day. Any fishmonger will usually give frames and heads away, and a supermarket counter will fillet a whole fish and hand back the bones if you ask. Gills must come out: they hold blood and grit.
If you are watching…
Blood pressure: an unsalted stock is the best way to build savour without sodium, which is why this sits in the low-sodium half of the chapter. Commercial fish or seafood stock cubes commonly carry 300–700 mg of sodium each, which defeats the purpose entirely.
Swap it
Prawn heads and shells for fish frames → sweeter, pinker, more assertive; roast them dry 3–4 minutes first. Excellent for theeyal. (Allergen: this swap introduces crustaceans.)
No frames available → M14 plus 10 g powdered dried prawn at step 4 for a marine note. Dried prawn is salted, so drop any salt later in the dish. (Allergen: this swap introduces crustaceans.)
Third coconut milk from M08 in place of 400 ml of the water → richer, for moilee and mappas, and it keeps two days rather than three.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Fridge 3 days covered. Freeze 3 months, in 250 ml portions or as an ice-cube tray of concentrate. Reduce by half and freeze if space is short: 550 ml of concentrate is as useful as 1.1 litres of stock.
Leftovers
Fish stock is itself a leftover — heads and frames that were going in the bin — so what matters is what happens to the stock. Reduce whatever is left by half, freeze it in an ice tray, and two cubes will lift any fish curry. It keeps 24 hours in the fridge and no longer; fish stock spoils faster than meat stock and its smell tells you plainly.
Troubleshooting
Cloudy: it boiled, or the solids were pressed. It still tastes fine.
Bitter: the gills stayed in, the frames were not rinsed, or it simmered past 30 minutes.
Strongly fishy rather than sweet: oily fish, or frames that were not fresh. This is a same-day preparation from same-day fish.
Serve with
R025 Meen Moilee · R030 Neymeen Mango Curry · R032 Chemmeen Theeyal · R035 Fish Mappas — and, more broadly, mussel and clam preparations, seafood kanji, and as the cooking liquid for rice served with fish.
Tap a star to rate this recipe
