Veracruz Shrimp-Head Stock (Caldo de Cabezas de Camarón)

Veracruz, the Gulf coast from Tuxpan down through Alvarado and Tlacotalpan, knows what to do with shrimp heads. This caldo de cabezas de camarón is not a soup for showing off. It is a working stock, the pot behind the pot, the flavor that makes arroz a la tumbada taste like the coast instead of plain rice with seafood thrown on top.

The chile here is guajillo, toasted lightly, not burned, and used for depth more than heat. Veracruz cooking carries the Gulf hand: seafood, tomato, garlic, olives in other dishes, herbs, and a practical habit of wasting nothing. The heads are the treasure. The shells give body, but the heads give the broth its sweet, briny backbone. Ask the women at the fish stalls in the Mercado Hidalgo in Veracruz. They will tell you the same thing.

My mother was from Jalisco, so this was not her daily kitchen. I learned this from a señora near Alvarado who sold shrimp by the kilo and kept a blackened pot at the back of her stall. She pressed each head with her spoon like she was collecting rent. That is the technique. Press, simmer gently, strain well. Cada estado, su propia cocina.