Geelstert Stock

One of the most severe impacts of the lockdown has been on the food system. Over night there was no more end user for the masses of produce that was usually intended for the hospitality industry, as restaurants closed their doors. This forced many farmers and fishers to pursue alternative end users for their produce. This has been particularly pleasant for us normal folk, who finally have access to some of the highest quality produce, such as fish. I would like to highlight one organisation in particular: Abalobi. Abalobi is an online app that connect small scale fishers to end users (before only chefs, now everyone!!).

http://abalobi.info/

So now you and I and everyone has a connection to individual fishermen and women trying to survive (not only in the time of Covid).

You are not buying from a conglomerate fishing company causing immeasurable damage to marine ecosystems. You can buy fish from this platform and know that you can enjoy the produce guilt free. Oh and fyi there are other indigenous goods on the platform made from plants too!

So by this point you must be asking yourself why I am writing about fish when this blog is about plants? I want to share the story of all the indigenous foods of the Cape, that enabled the survival of hunter-gatherers in the past and that we can enjoy sustainably today. So from time to time I will share recipes made from sustainable, indigenous meat sources.

Today I am sharing a recipe made from Cape Yellowtail, which occurs in the Atlantic waters of the Cape. Last week I bought two yellowtail on the Abalobi app and was very happy that the fish was delivered fresh, and un-filleted the next day.

After we filleted the fish, we had at least six dinners worth of food! We braaied the one fillet that night and froze the rest.

Apart from the superb fillets, we were left with a heap of bones, and two very large heads. The head of fish contain a large amount of flesh! Similarly, the bones of the backbone contain loads of flavour and gelatin. It would be a sin to throw a large portion of the two fish away, after Abalobi and the fishers were so diligent in insuring the sustainability of the produce. There are many recipes you can use these bits in, my husband makes a mean snoek head soup. But for this batch I had something different in mind.

Indigenous, wild food is seasonal, so I am quite obsessed with saving wild flavours in any way I can. I am also rather upset by the lack of good quality stock available in shops. It just does not cut it. I have ruined too many Paellas and Risottos to keep using store-bought stock powders and jellies (yuck). Stocks are also great way to use food scraps and off cuts. Odd bits of veggies, off cuts of meat, all kinds of “rubbish” that would have gone in the bin, can go into stock and make something of superb quality and flavour that is packed with nutrients. To date I have made Springbok Stock, Vegan Stock using Porcini and now fish stock!!

Stock is super simple to make. You basically need to extract the flavour from the fish into water. Along with veggie and herb flavours to give a full round flavour punch to any seafood dish (actually any savoury dish). The real key to good stock is high quality ingredients with intense flavour, chuck it all in a pot with water and boil for a bit and that’s it!

Ingredients:

Table spoon olive oil

Bunch of celery

3 carrots

1 onion

2 leeks

Half bulb garlic

Large knob of ginger

Bunch origanum

Bunch dill

Bunch choriander

Bunch sage

4 lemons

2 Star anice

6 Cloves

5 Cardomon

4 Bay leaves

Tea spoon cumin

Half teaspoon pepper corns

Two yellowtail off cuts and heads

Enough water to cover the whole bunch

Method:

Chop all veggies roughly, and sweat down in olive oil. Add fish, lemons (juice them, and then add whole lemons), and herbs. Fill pot with water until all ingredients are submerged. Add spices and let pot simmer for 3 hours. I like to simmer the mixture until a ½ of the water has evaporated. This means your stock will be nice and strong!

Leave to cool. Strain mixture through cheese cloth (which will be irreversibly fishy after, so throw it away). Pour mixture into ice-trays and freeze. When frozen empty into Ziplock, store in freezer and use as needed!

An instant taste of super healthy, good for you, ocean goodness. Simply dissolve the ice cubes in your seafood dishes and marvel at the instant depth of flavour you get! Perfect for Paella and ramen.