In a prior post, you were introduced to The Mother of All Fish Stocks. Eats loves that "Mother of All..." terminology. It has enough tongue in the cheek to be boastful without being too in your face. At least that's how it's perceived from this seat. Hope you agree.
As an aside, the most powerful hydraulic cutter used in vehicle and machinery rescue is made by the Hurst Company. It's official moniker is the MOC Cutters. As you might have guessed, MOC stands for Mother-Off-all-Cutters.
So the MOAF started with the heads and a bit of the body of the aforementioned red grouper and mutton snapper. Throw in some coarsely chopped onion, carrots, half a bushel of bay leaves (we'll 'splain later), some water, and set on the Weber grill. You could prepare this stock inside but a residential kitchen is a difficult prospect with this one. Unless you have cats and want to drive them absolutely bananas for a few hours and then have the lingering aroma (some would call it stank) of boiling fish in your house, we seriously suggest the outdoor method.
Some recipes call for a quick boil, one hour. There is a good amount of gelatinous substance to the fish bones that you want to extract for thickening purposed. Plus, it's really tasty too. So a good three or four hour simmer is more our speed.
The MOAFS is now cooling on the kitchen countertop. We'll pick through the remains of the carcass and report back later.
Oh, as for the bay leaves, FoodMuse thought there were too many bay leaves. I think we used six in a 12 quart stockpot. FoodMuse was concerned. I wasn't. But then again, I sometimes get carried away with herbs and spices so my lack of concern isn't necessarily a good thing. I like to use the redneck proportioning method. It goes something like, "if a little is good, a lot is surely great!" Though sometimes a worthy mantra, not necessarily words to live by 100% of the time.
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