Bisque is a traditional French style soup that is thick and creamy, and usually involves seafood, although today folks call just about any creamy puree soup a bisque. I can assure you though, if you make a real bisque on date night, your enchanted will be blown away and never buy a carton of so-called bisque at Trader Joes again. And the more ways they can thank you, the better life is for you…. My recipe calls for a live lobster, but that’s not everyone’s deal, so you can just use a lobster tail, but you will be missing on out on some of the flavor (don’ t ask where the other flavor comes from if you like to order bisque at fine restaurants).
Ingredients
- 2 Live Lobsters – about a pound each
- 2 TBL Olive oil
- 1 Onion – sliced
- 1 Celery stalk – chopped
- 1 Carrot – sliced
- 1 Garlic head – cut in half cross-wise
- 1 Tomato – large and sliced
- 2 oz Tomato paste
- 2 TBL Tarragon – chopped, or 2 tsp dry
- 2 TBL Thyme – chopped, or 2 tsp dry
- 2 Bay leaves
- 8 Whole black peppercorns
- 4 oz Brandy
- 4 oz Dry sherry
- 32 oz Fish stock – or make a substitute fish stock
- 4 oz Heavy cream
- 2 tsp cornstrach
- 1 TBL water
- Salt to taste
Process
- Mise en Place – measure and prepare your ingredients prior to starting.
- Prepare Lobsters
- Fill large pot with water and bring to a boil.
- Add lobsters and boil ~8 mins or until the shells turn bright red.
- Transfer lobsters to large bowl and let cool.
- Set aside 2 cups of the boil water and drain the rest.
- Remove meat from shells, use pliers or a nut cracker to open claws. Reserve any juices you get.
- Coarsely chop meat and chill.
- Coarsely chop shells
- Heat a large saute pan on high. Once hot, add olive oil and let warm. Add the shells and sear them until brown.
- Add onion, celery, carrots, tomato, and paste. Once that is going, add the herbs and peppercorns.
- Reduce heat to Med and cook, stirring until the tomato paste turns a deep rust.
- Blend in brandy and sherry and boil until most is evaporated.
- Add stock and reserved lobster water and lobster juices.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Cover and let simmer for 1 hour.
- Transfer soup to food processor or blender and puree until shells are coarsely ground.
- Place sieve over a large pot and strain soup. Press solids to extract as much flavor as possible, and then discard the solids.
- Heat bisque until reduced to ~1 quart.
- Stir in cream and bring to a simmer.
- Add salt to taste.
- Dissolve cornstarch in water to create a slurry and then add the slurry to the bisque.
- Boil the bisque until thickened.
- Just before serving, add the lobster meat to the soup and give it about a minute to heat.
- Serve with a loaf of fresh made French bread.
