The Pilgrim's Pots and Pans

A few months back, I had merienda at one of my cousins and marvelled at the full-bodied flavour of her pancit. I dissected the plate and wondered what made it so tasty. My cousin confirmed my suspicions. It was the fresh shrimp extract.

Fresh shrimp extract, or sabo paro in the vernacular, is what makes Filipino cooking malinamnam. After writing about recipes that call for it, such as last Thursdays alpang bauang, tipé câmangyáng and a few others, I am surprised to find out that today’s generation seems to not know it and not a few have asked if they can substitute shrimp cubes and ginisa mix in pouches. Being the old school cook that I am, I would not hesitate to say no. They simply will not do. 

My grandmother may have passed away in my childhood but the kitchen lessons I learnt from her are carried on way onto my adult years. One of these is that in cooking, if you want something to taste the way it ought to, there are no shortcuts. To this day though, I still haven’t defined what ‘ought to’ means yet I rarely ever use instant sauces and mixes. I always cook from scratch, never mind if it entails doing tedious prep work. Even when time is of the essence, I find myself cooking the way I was trained, with minimal omission of steps. I might as well just eat a sandwich on the run than some haphazardly prepared stew. Now, make no mistake, I’m no snob and very tolerant of other people’s cooking. It’s just my own that always has to follow Lola’s rules. I’m making that qualification lest I be banned from friends’ dining tables.

I suppose the prevalence of all those one-step bouillon cubes has led to the near abandonment of extracting the essence from shrimp heads and shells to flavour whatever is being cooked with shrimps. I find this a necessity if one wishes to have a tastier dish. No amount of salt or patis (fish sauce) can equal a cup of shrimp extract. Compared to patis, one can control the amount of sodium. When I serve dishes cooked with shrimp extract, everybody notices how malinamnam or flavourful these are. It only takes around five minutes to extract the flavour from shrimp heads and it is worth all the trouble.

For the sake of documentation and for the novice cooks who inquired about the method, find below the step-by-step process of getting the most out of your paro.

Fresh Shrimp Extract

Ingredients:
Heads and shells of shrimps used for whatever you’re cooking
Water

Equipment:
Stone mortar and pestle (a wooden set might retain the smell forever)
Fine strainer

Procedure:

Place the shrimp heads and shells in the mortar and pound till soft enough to squeeze over a strainer. The first extraction yields a thick pasty consistency even without water.

Repeat the process of pounding and squeezing, this time with small amounts of water, until the shells render an almost clear liquid.

Use to flavour pancit (noodles), broth, stews or stir-fries but make sure it goes through a long rolling boil to avoid the malanam taste (malansa or biting, slimey fishy taste).