Shrimp demi-glace is a sauce that is sumptuous, luxurious, yet not difficult te make. Hardly commercially available, you make it from the (waste) heads, shells and tails of shrimp in the presence of some aromatic vegetables. The sauce is used to provide extra taste to seafood combinations, such as the avocado shrimp roll, but also provides taste to Asian noodle dishes.
Widespread confusion exists over what constitutes the term shrimp sauce. The shrimp demi-glace resembles the more widely known traditionally made oyster sauce. But more complex and a bit sweeter.
The art of making shrimp demi-glace
The start of the process is making a shrimp broth, as explained in the recipe for shrimp bisque. First pan fry the shrimp heads and tails in vegetable oil so that they change color and brown a bit. Thereafter add the aromatic vegetables such as onion, stalk cellery, leek, carrot, parsley stems and tomato. Deglaze the pan scrapings with some spirits such as ouzo and brandy and then add water, some thyme, rosemary and a bay leave. After simmering, strain the mixture and press the filtercake. This clear broth is concentrated on medium high fire, until the mixture becomes more viscous and starts to form smaller bubbels. Some 300 g of heads and tails from 8 Argentinian wild caught shrimp with the aromatic vegetables, yielded 80 g of an intense tasting, viscous, deep brown shrimp demi-glace. Use only some sea salt to bring the remaining demi-glace to taste. A small amount of the demi-glace goes a long way as taste enhancer!
Special equipment
A siff
Ingredients
Method
- Place the oil in a small soup pan and heat on medium to high fire
- Place all shrimp heads and tail and shells in the pan and fry them until they have some brown spots (but do not char them)
- After that add in portions the roughly cut onion, carrot and then celery
- After a few minutes add the other vegetables and finish with the tomato
- Switch off the fire and add the ouzo and brandy; stir to let the pan scrapings dissolve
- Then add so much water until the shrimp shells en vegetables are just submersed
- Add the herbs and simmer for 30 minutes
- Then pour the broth through a fine mesh sieve and squeeze all juices out of the filter cake
- In a clean pan, re-heat the clear broth and let is boil at medium high
- Concentrate the broth by evaporation
- After 30 min - 1 h (depends on your heat source and pan) the broth should have concentrated such that you observe many small bubbles. You can check the viscosity of the sauce and you can even taste.
- Ensure that the sauce is viscous enough and adjust the taste only by using some sea salt. Often the taste is substantially umami but als sweet.
- Pour the contents in a small (glass) vial and freeze the contents when not using in the next few days.
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: shrimp
Remarks
1. Be careful not to blacken the shrimp heads and tails when pan frying them. The burned taste will end up in your demi-glace. But browning the shrimp heads, tails and skin is perfect.
2. This shrimp demi-glace is not to be confused with shrimp paste, that is made from ground shrimp and then fermented. This shrimp paste is very pungent and umami and widely used in Asian cuisine. The demi-glace has a more royal taste, sweet, umami and extremely flavorful, but absolutely not pungent.
3. Pack the sauce in small vials and freeze it and defrost later what you need. The sauce freezes and defrosts extremely well. No taste and consistency differences are observed. The sauce holds well for a few days in the fridge.
4. The sweetness of the sauce comes from three sources: first of all the ouzo and brandy will contain some sugars and they will remain in the demi-glace. Secondly, there will be some sugars from the aromatic vegetables remaining. And thirdly, the D-aminoacids that are generated from the shrimp shells also taste sweet. This sauce is extremely intense umami, but also sweet.
The shrimp shells release glucosamine, a aminosugar crucial for building cartilage and joint fluid. Also ribonucleotides such as inosine mono phosphate and guanosine mono phosphate are released that provide for a deep umami taste. Cheap broths (also meat broths) usually contain these chemicals, including MSG. It is not the real stuff, but when used to support a dish, it can be considered.
5. Use the sauce for bringing seafood dishes up to taste (eg seafood paella or seafood rice), seafood soup or use it in seafood rolls.
