SHRIMP SHELL MAGIC

CHRONICLE: ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, JANUARY 2024

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Below, you’ll find a simple recipe for stock made from shrimp shells. But fair warning…making shrimp shell stock adds an extra step to the recipe you’re ultimately making. It’s a smelly affair, but worth it in the end.

What do shrimp shells and friendships have in common?

On the surface, nothing.

But shrimp shells, in all their stinky, salty, brininess, can become the most wonderful stock for use in cooking other dishes. Similarly, friends, especially longstanding friends, those we wholly accept, and who accept us, stinky bits, and all, are living treasures.

I first learned the shrimp shell trick back in 2015 during a year-long culinary program I attended in Santa Fe, New Mexico. for my final project, I was assigned Bouillabaisse, that fishy, French seafood stew. The Bouillabaisse would be graded on taste and presentation. It had to be cooked, start to finish, within a strict two-hour time limit. This was unlike any final I’d taken in college. This was like a real-life episode of CHOPPED. If my dish was not ready within the two-hour time limit, it was considered an automatic failure. Of course, it had to taste good too.

My Bouillabaisse was a success, in large part because I made a quick seafood stock using the frozen shrimp shells that we saved and accumulated for this exact purpose. That umami-rich, shrimpy stock was the backbone for the entire dish.

I’ve never forgotten making that Bouillabaisse or the easy magic of turning shrimp shells into flavorful stock. I purposefully buy shrimp with their shells, so that one day, I can make shrimp stock for an upcoming, special occasion dish. I collected shrimp shells during 2023, squirreling them away in a zip-loc bag I kept in the freezer.

This past New Year’s, to welcome 2024, I made seafood risotto, just the occasion I’d been waiting for to put my frozen stash of shrimp shells to use.

Shrimp, one could say, are like extroverts. They are classified as having exoskeletons, an external, forward facing structure that supports them.

I am an introvert.

You might correctly guess that my idea of a great New Year’s Eve is to stay home with my husband, cook something festive and delicious, maybe watch a movie, maybe not even try to stay up until midnight.

I have friends, but I’ve never been the life of the party. I tend towards having a small circle of close friends. In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, author Susan Cain says, “Extroverts are more likely to focus on what’s happening around them. It’s as if extroverts are seeing ‘what is,’ while their introverted peers are asking ‘what if.”

The key to understanding the magic of shrimp shells and deep friendship, is to lean into our curiosity. To ask what if. To imagine a bigger, better picture rather than simply seeing what is right in front of us.

These days, at the start of 2024, I’m imagining an expanded friend circle. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll probably never have a large friend group. But recently, a loneliness has settled in, without invitation. Covid didn’t help. Neither did moving twice since 2019. I don’t like admitting that I feel lonely. It makes me feel bad, like I’ve done something wrong without knowing what that “wrong” thing is.

I’m not sure if my ability to make friends has changed or if I’m meeting people I simply don’t feel a connection with. I’m hounded by the age old ‘is it me’ question. A few days ago, I was talking to a friend, a life-long friend. She was struggling to understand an unpleasant interaction. My advice to her was, “it’s not you, it’s them.”  

I’m trying to remind myself of this conversation.

Maybe I should take my own advice.

Marisa G. Franco, author of Platonic: The Surprising New Science of Making and Keeping Friends as An Adult said in a recent interview, “Up to 50% of adults report being lonely. I am one of those people. People are looking for someone who makes them feel valued and loved and like they matter. Being entertaining to other people doesn’t matter at all. Instead of being cool and charismatic, be someone who’s interested in other people. People think vulnerability is a burden. The more we self-disclose about ourselves the more liked we are by other people. If you’re always trying to come off as poised and perfect, then you might actually be harming yourself. People really want to know who you really are.”

Don’t we all want to be seen? I know I want to be seen. It’s not easy to be vulnerable. It’s downright scary sometimes, well, most of the time. But having friends and relationships in which I am valued, where my strengths and capabilities can outshine my quirks and insecurities, quietly resting in the background, is foundational to my (our) emotional well-being.

So, all this talk of making and retaining friends, allowing vulnerability within friendship, to be seen in a way that reflects our light into the world, has brought me back to shrimp shells.

I’ll ask again. What do shrimp shells and friendships have in common?

Everything.

Shrimp shells have the power to transform into the gift of shrimp stock, becoming the basis for any number of dishes. Our friendships, at least some of them, might also benefit from a ‘what if’ transformation. What if we allow for more vulnerability? What if we ask more questions, listen to a few more answers? What if, dare I say, we fell into a little bit of friend love? We just might find that our friendships, like our shrimp stock, develop into something richer, more meaningful, right before our very eyes.

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SHRIMP SHELL STOCK

I am only including the recipe for the shrimp stock.

There are many excellent recipes for risotto, fish-based soups and chowders and seafood pasta dishes. Some of my favorite websites for recipes, or just for reading, are Epicurious, Saveur, and Serious Eats. Use shrimp stock as a deglazing liquid for shrimp and grits, and of course incorporate it into Bouillabaisse.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Defrosted shells from a couple pounds of shrimp. I filled a gallon-sized baggie.

2. Water to cover shells by 1 inch. A 4-quart pot is ideal.

3. 4 large cloves of garlic, peeled

4. 2 or 3 bay leaves

5. 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

HOW TO:

Place defrosted shells into the pot. Fill with enough water to cover by about an inch. Add peeled garlic cloves, salt, and bay leaves. Place pot on stove and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer. Let shells cook for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Strain stock into a colander with a large bowl placed underneath. Save the stock and discard the cooked shells. Proceed with your subsequent recipe whether it be soup, stew, pasta, or risotto.