Allie just turned 9 months. At her recent developmental check with the PD, I was encouraged to try feed Allie more solids, moving from 2 meals to 3 meals a day. And there I was, thinking I’m doing now a pretty decent job introducing Allie to solids. We’re moving to three meals already? Gosh. How time flies.
Allie’s meals are now mainly in the morning and evening. For breakfast, she usually have oats, fruits, yoghurt, bread and/or baby rice cereal (Breakfasty kind of food). While I have my lunch, Allie usually gets to snack a bit on baby rice puffs, rice cereal snacks or yoghurt drops. Occasionally, she gets some fruit. I wouldn’t consider this a meal but a filler for me to eat in peace. Haha. Dinner is usually her heaviest meal. Usually it’s porridge or baby pasta, made with a variety of stocks, meats and vegetables. I like to think she gets a rather balanced meal, and an empty bowl always tells me she’s enjoyed it.
I’ve been thinking about how to make her lunch proper. Considering the lack of time in the morning, it prompted me to start expanding my freezer stash. Hence, a trip to the supermarket. And hence, this cod fish stock.
I mean just look at this packet of cod fish bones. Don’t they call out to you? (Auntie mode on)
I meant what could go wrong with this choice? Cod fish and is extremely high in Vitamins A, D, E and Omega-3 Fatty Acids (good fats!) plus I’ve learnt from making chicken stock, that the little bits of meat on the bone is a bonus to the meal. I bought the bones along with some other groceries and left the supermarket.
On the way home, I texted my mom, asking her what to do with the bones. Should I just boil them? Mom’s reply was short and simple: “Cod fish bones actually don’t make very good stock.” Okay. Maybe I should have texted mom BEFORE I left the supermarket. But since I’ve bought them, I was determined to make good use of it. And thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
- Cod fish bones
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 3-4 sprigs of spring onions, washed & chopped
- Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled & sliced
- 1 carrot, peeled & chopped
- 1 ear of sweet corn, husked & chopped
- 1 tsp of oil
Method:
Add oil to a hot pan. Then toss in the garlic, ginger & spring onions. Pan fry for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.
Add in the cod fish bones and pan fry them to get some flavour out of them.
Don’t fry for too long, just till a bit of browning appears on the fish. Like this.
Add 1 litre of water.
Add in the corn and carrots too. Then let it come up to a boil, before lowering the heat to a medium-low. Then half-cover the pan and let the soup boil for a good 60-90min. (Add more water if too much has evaporated off.)
Now this is when things got complicated. I could have easily strained everything, portion and freeze the stock. End of story. (you can choose this option if you want to!)
But I got a little greedy. I fished out the bones, pulled whatever little scraps of meat out I could (be careful the bones!), scooped some carrots out & cut the corn from the core. Then I strained the soup (just in case of bones, plus to remove the garlic & spring onions) and blitzed everything up in the blender. Ie, the soup + fish meat + carrots + corn. The end result was somewhat more of a bisque than a clear fish stock, but I was happy.
I let the stock cool down before portioning it to freeze.
The next day, I took a cube of that bisquey fish stock out of the freezer and made some porridge for Allie. Nothing else was needed apart from rice, since I knew the stock already had tiny bits of carrots, corn and fish in it! 🙂
My verdict? You can make pretty decent fish stock out of cod fish bones. Give it try! You might just be pleasantly surprised, just as I was.
To Mamas; For Kids 