I do most of the cooking because my wife works fairly late and the kids want to eat as soon as she gets home. The crock pot is your friend and the soups are so incredibly easy to make in one. When we lived in Florida didn't make much, but up in the North Country, it is pretty damn good on a 20 degree day. Like you I always save the bones for stock and same goes for ham bones to make pintos in the crock pot as well. There are so many crock pot recipes out there that are great.
Well, there is my issue, i suppose. I am a minimalist in the kitchen . . . few ingredients, few dirty pans, low time spent in the kitchen. Box-O-Broth works in my stews. Chicken carcases go into Mr. Garbage Can. Bachelors Rule Number 17--Never let a woman get too comfortable in your kitchen. Soon they start bringing their stuff over on every visit and leaving it. Then one day they show up with their cat and never leave.
Homemade stock is the magic ingredient in most of my cooking. Chicken, beef, and shrimp stock are always at hand. They add that base layer of richness that have my guests scratching their head as to why my cooking tastes so full flavored. I also use the stock to boil the rice. That has a way of making sure I don't have half a pot of rice left over with an empty pot of gumbo.
I always make extra rice so we can make fried rice or dirty rice. My kids like the fried rice better since my dirty rice is "too spicy".
Where do you get the shrimp stock. I make it everytime I have some heads on shrimp but a lot of stores only sell headless. I won't make seafood gumbo unless I have shrimp stock. Chicken stock is OK for chicken and sausage gumbo but not for seafood
When I visit the folks in Stonewall I can get fresh gulf shrimp (heads on) at the gas station down the road. When I need some quickly here in Big D, I go to the Super H Mart (Chinese grocery store). They have the biggest collection of seafood and meat I have ever seen. The Chinese groceries always have what Louisiana transplant needs. Pig liver for boudin. They have it. Pork belly for bacon. Yep. Live blue crab and crawfish. In season. Fresh whole fish cut and cleaned on the spot any way you want it.
You can always substitute clam juice in a pinch. Sometimes if I have only headless shrimp, I will use the shells, some vegetable broth bouillon and clam juice to make a good broth for seafood gumbo.
Just the shells don't make near as strong a broth as with the heads. I've never had any clam juice. Do they sell it in cans or is it the juice in a can of clams?
This is it right here. Make stock anytime you have a pot of bones around. We throw in whatever fresh herbs we have on hand like Rosemary, Sage, etc. and boil the shit out of it. Once you make soup this way, you won't want any part of that canned stuff. Turkey stock after Thanksgiving is a key ingredient in Christmas Gumbo...
