Wonderfully Rich and Delicious Shrimp Stock

I am an NPR fanatic.  Back when I was in grad school, I didn't have cable, and I was just fine was it because I'd just keep my NPR on all day long, and I just loved it.  There was always something new and interesting on the "Dianne Rehm Show" or "The Story," plenty of hilarious moments on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," "Car Talk," and "The Moth."  One particular show that I fell in love with is "The Splendid Table."  Host Lynne Rossetto Kasper always shared such great recipes, and I loved hearing her creative suggestions for callers in recipe ruts.  Her recipes always sounded so amazing, yet they were never overly complicated.

As a regular listener of "The Splendid Table," I had mentally bookmarked a number of Lynne's mouth-watering recipes.  One of those recipes was the Rustic Shrimp Bisque shared by Melissa Clark.  Today, I finally had the chance to try the recipe and WOW!!  Talk about an easy recipe that packs some shockingly serious flavor!  In just 3 simple steps and 20 short minutes you can have a wonderful, restaurant-quality shrimp stock for soups, bisques, or seafood rice dishes.

As usual, since I didn't have a few of the ingredients (the wine and the brandy) I substituted with whatever I had around.  Below is the recipe that I used.  The original recipe can be found at the link at the bottom of the page.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1. shells from 1lb or so of shrimp, well-rinsed
2. 1 TB of butter
3. 2/3 c beer (I used Modelo)
4. 1 TB of cachaca (Brazilian sugar cane alcohol) or white rum
5. 6 cups of water
6. 1 clove of garlic
7. 1 bay leaf
8. 3 sprigs fresh time, or 1 pinch of dried thyme
9. salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pot and cook shrimp shells over high heat, stirring frequently, until lightly browned.  This should take about 3 minutes.

2. Add beer and cachaca and continue cooking over high heat until the alcohol is almost evaporated.

3. Once the alcohol has nearly evaporated, add 6 cups of water, bay leaf, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

4. Strain shrimp stock into a bowl, pressing the shells before discarding them.

References: The Splendid Table, http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/soup_shrimp_bisque.html