Sunday Kitchen

A couple of Sundays ago I had a full afternoon in the kitchen. I portioned fish stock, made pumpernickel croutons, cooked a pumpkin, made pumpkin bread, toasted pumpkin seeds, and roasted a spaghetti squash for a side dish. It was my first time on everything but the croutons. Here’s some advice: portion and freeze your fish stock as soon as it cools. I was too busy and let it sit in the fridge in a pot for a couple of days. It turned into a gelatin which I had to reheat before I could pour it into smaller containers for the freezer. Gross!

Travis was pining for bouillabaisse, hence making the fish stock. I won’t lie; it was a lot of work. I made the stock and the soup all in one night. It was my first time buying fish heads to make stock. You can get them for .79/lb at Patti’s. I got one grouper and one snapper. I had them take out the gills and cut them in ½ for me. They were surprisingly clean with lots of meat in the head. One part I wasn’t clear about was the eyes. Despite my googling, I couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to take their eyes out. Gross, I know. I ended up cutting them out and yes it was the yuckiest thing I’ve done in the kitchen besides cooking liver. 

Next time I make stock I’m going to just buy a whole fish or two and have Patti’s filet and cut it up for me. Then, I can just make use of the entire fish for stock and soup.

The bouillabaisse was good, but since then we’ve tried a cioppino soup that I liked better. Basically, it seems they are about the same thing but one is a French version and the other Italian. I would like to really hone it down to the perfect seafood soup. That will be an ongoing project.

The spaghetti squash wigged me out. I saw it in Everman’s and vaguely wondered why it was called ‘spaghetti squash.’ I had to buy one to try. I cut it open and cleaned the seeds out. Everything seemed normal at that point.  But, after roasting it for about 45 minutes, the insides turned into spaghetti like strands. I think I gasped when I pulled it out of the oven. Crazy! But, it was delicious. It reminded me of hash browns.

Recipe Links

Pumpkin Bread

Modifications: I substituted coconut oil for the canola oil and would add nuts if I made it again.

Spaghetti Squash

Modifications: substituted olive oil for the vegetable oil

Bouillabaisse
Modifications: used less seafood than called for.

Fish Stock

Cioppino

Modifications: I used olive oil instead of butter and cut down on the amount of seafood it called for. All of that seafood makes for an expensive soup