Strong Fish Broth Recipe (Fumet)

This intensely flavored fish broth gives an extra body to seafood sauces, soups, risotto, or Paella. In French, it is called fish Fumet, which means aroma. Compared to the regular fish stock made with small white fish and vegetables, this recipe has additional flavors from white wine and tomatoes. It can be used for risotto, seafood paella, veloute sauces, or soups, including Bercy, Nantua, and Normandy sauce.

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• Instructions
• Fish broth uses
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• 📋Strong Fish Broth Recipe (Fumet)

The difference between this recipe and the regular fish stock is very simple.

A regular stock is made by boiling vegetables, fish bones, shrimp shells, and heads. Chicken stock is made the same way.

Instead, this recipe uses a culinary technique called “sweating,” in which the main ingredients are first roasted and then boiled. This same technique is used to make the brown beef stock.

The broth's flavor and color are more intense and work perfectly in many recipes like soups, risotto, or paella.

This broth is also used to make veloute sauce, which is the base for veloute soups or Bercy sauce. The Bercy sauce is served with grilled or warm-boiled fish.

While I use the pressure cooker for chicken and beef stock to shorten the cooking time, this is not necessary for fish stock or broth as the fish is boiled only for 20 minutes.

If fish or seafood are overcooked, it develops a bitter taste, and we want to avoid that.

Ingredients

• 1 small white fish to make the fumet (here, I use gurnards. You can also use sole, turbot, plaice, or haddock)
• ½ cup cherry tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups dry white wine
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

First, we roast the fish in the oven

1. Put the gurnards in a small roasting pan with salt and pepper.
2. Add 1 cup of white wine and 4 cherry tomatoes cut into pieces.
3. Bake the fish in a hot oven at 350 F - 180 C for 20 minutes.

4. In the meantime, stir a small onion and 3 chopped cherry tomatoes in a large pan to make the fish stock.
5. Once the gurnard is done, transfer it to the stock pan and add 1 spoon of concentrated tomato sauce (optional).
6. To keep all the flavors of the roasting fish, pour some water into the roasting pan to deglaze it.
7. Pour the water over the fish and add ½ cup of white wine.
8. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.

9. Strain the fumet with a paper cloth and let it cool down completely.

Hint: Keep strictly to the cooking time. Seafood should never be overcooked as it develops a bitter flavor.

Fish broth uses

This fish fumet can be used in seafood risotto like shrimp lemon risotto or Scallops And Risotto With Peas And Bacon. It can also be used in seafood paella or soups like this Chayote soup with mussels.

The fish broth is also used to prepare seafood veloute sauce, similar to bechamel but made with stock instead of milk.

It is the base for Veloute soups and Bercy sauce, served as a side sauce for grilled or warm-boiled fish.

If preparing a seafood dish that includes shellfish, you can add some of the water released by the clam or mussels to add flavor.

Substitutions

To make a fish stock or broth, you can use small white fish like sole, turbot, plaice, haddock, or gurnards.

Do not use flavored solid oil fish like mackerel.

You can use mushrooms instead of cherry tomatoes for a more winter flavor.

Equipment

You do not need any special equipment to make this recipe. A regular baking pan with high edges to keep the juices when baking.

A saucepan to boil the broth and a fine strainer to filter the bones.

Prepare some containers if you want to freeze them for later.

Storage

This fish broth will keep in the fridge for 1 day. If you want to use it at a later time, you can freeze it.

Freeze into small containers so you can defrost only the amount you need.

To defrost, simply use the microwave or place it in a pan and heat it until melted.

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