Seafood Bisque

Nothing like a good seafood bisque.

 

 

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

 

1/3 cup lobster meat bite size pieces

1/3 cup crab meat bite size pieces

1/3 cup small shrimp, or larger shrimp cut in half (peeled and deveined)

2/3 cup onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup carrot, shredded

2 cups mild chicken broth (or vegetable stock)

3 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons butter + 1 teaspoon regular olive oil

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon tarragon (if you use the leaves, crush them in your palm first)

1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 can evaporated milk (not condensed milk!)*

1/2 cup half and half

3 tablespoons brandy (+ 1 or 2 for yourself  hahaha)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

 

In a large heavy bottom pan or pot over low heat, add and melt the butter and mix in the teaspoon of oil. Add the onion and the carrot and stir frequently until the vegetables soften; this can take a little time, but it is important to continue cooking the vegetables until they are softened. Unless you're Bugs Bunny, you don't want to bite into a bunch of crunchy carrot and start going around saying, "What's up, Doc?" When the veggies are softened, sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir it in. Adjust the heat upward to medium and add 1/2 cup of the broth, stirring to mix the broth with the flour coated vegetables, until the liquid just starts to bubble. Add another 1/2 cup of broth and stir again and repeat the process, allowing the liquid to heat up to nearly boiling, before adding another 1/2 cup of broth. The liquid should thicken somewhat by the time all of the broth is added and heated (I said "somewhat;" we're not making pie filling or cement). Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, tarragon and cayenne pepper (1/3 teaspoon of cayenne in this amount of ingredients will not cause you to dial 9-1-1 or seek treatment in your local emergency care facility; on the other hand, if you're a person who seeks your own personal Hell in spicy food, I personally don't think you should use a lot more than 1/3 or 1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, because seafood is mild in taste and you would be overdoing it in a great bisque.) Turn the heat back down to low, stir, and then add the evaporated milk and the half and half, stirring as you add the dairy products. Add the shrimp, the lobster meat and the crab meat. Add the brandy and the ground black pepper and gently mix them in. Let everything warm up completely, but do NOT let it boil at all and do not let the shrimp cook too long, or they'll become rubbery. (To test, you can take a piece of shrimp from the bisque and throw it at the wall, if it bounces back, you've got two problems: the shrimp is overcooked, plus you'll have to clean the wall  hahahahaha!)

 

 

* Evaporated milk is heated to kill bacteria and it has more than half of the water removed. It is similar in appearance to homogenized milk, with it typically being just slightly off white in color, although with some brand names it is more to a light tan color. Condensed milk also has more than half of the water removed, but then sugar is added, making the milk thick and sweet. It is typically kind of beige in color.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Bisque-English has two words of this spelling, with the least used word meaning "a type of unglazed ceramic," which is simply a shortened form of "biscuit," due to the material being baked. The more common form, meaning "a thick and creamy soup," is "seemingly" an altered form of "Biscay," a province of Spain that is the heart of the Basque part of Spain (in Spanish, the region is known as "Vizcaya"), with the bay between Spain and France also bearing the name. The soup may well have acquired the name from the bay, as it is often a soup of fish or other seafood, which would have been caught in the bay. On the French side of the border, in southwestern France, is the seaside resort of "Biscarrosse Plage," with the first part of the name obviously derived from the same ultimate source, presumed to be the Basque word "biskar," thought to mean "mountainous area, mountain ridge," which if true, would be a likely reference to the Pyrennes Mountains.