Shrimp Bisque - Holy Delicious Batman
September 22, 2008

Sunday cooking is always a good time for me, as the fridge is usually well stocked and I've got plenty of time to sit and stew about what I'm going to make with the delicious that's present. Tonight I turned to an old favorite for me, bisque. My usual bisque of choice is usually crab, but Paula Dean bless her butter loving heart, decided to come on my television and demonstrate shrimp bisque and I knew what was getting made this evening. Superior om noms came of this.

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 cups Shrimp (shell on, uncooked)
• 1 Onion
• About five cloves of garlic
• About 7 spears of asparagus (don't want it overpowering the bisque
• 1 package baby port mushrooms (you could use button, but... they're button.)
• A bunch of parsley (fresh, silly)
• 2 good sized potatos
• Tabasco (this can be omitted if you are weak.)
• 2 ribs of celery (pick from the inside'ish part of the celery bunch, its always better than the outer ribs)
• 1 can chicken stock (you could use fish stock, but I had chicken)
• About 1/2 quart heavy whipping cream
• Buttah.
• Optionally, some bread to make crutons from
• Dried Spices && Herbs: Dill, chili powder, Basil
• A couple good swigs of white wine into this baby would be awesome

I know, the list is a bit long but its fairly cheap to obtain these ingredients (save the shrimp, of course) and this really does make a ton of tasty food. You could also substitute canned crab in this recipe and it would be some damned good crab bisque instead (good stuff can be had from Geisha for about $1.50/can and you'd need 2 cans).

The Process

Before you get started with anything, and this is true of cooking in general, assemble, chop and prep your ingredients as much as possible. Crush and dice the garlic, mince the onion, break up the asparagus (you can hold the top in one hand and the bottom in another, snap it and it will naturally snap where you need to discard), chop the parsley, peel and chop the potatoes etc. Reserve the shells from the shrimp as you're peeling and deveining them.

This is called 'Mise en Place' or everything in (its) place. Its the concept of having everything ready so that while you're applying heat and time is of the essence, everything is where you expect and know it to be - making it a pleasurable experience of combination instead of a frantic dash to chop and find things.

k, good. You're got mise en place down pat? You're almost ready to get started. Group your onion and celery together with the garlic, and keep everything else separate. All of these items have different cooking times and since this is a bisque, we're shooting to have some freshness retained in the ingredients.

Get the potatoes boiling in one pot (I used a pan, no more pots available), put the reserved shrimp shells into a pot of boiling water (we're extracting the flavor to put back into the bisque) and get some butter melting in a LARGE pot over medium heat. You're well on your way to making some delicious. Once the butter's melted, start throwing in your onion+celery+garlic mix-up and let 'em sweat down a bit. You're not trying to get them to caramelize at all, so don't let the heat get up too high.

Your kitchen should be smelling lovely at this point and your cats should be coming to bother you. This is a good sign. Once the onion-celery-garlic almost trinity (onion, celery and carrot is a common start for French dishes) is starting to get a little soft pour in your can of chicken stock and mix in your dried herbs && spices. Keep it at a very low simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until everything's very soft and you can't stop tasting the stock.

Do keep an eye on the shrimp shells. I wasn't paying attention and it boiled over creating quite a mess on my stove and sending me to panic mode cleaning everything up. Once you don't boil over your shrimp, it would be a good idea to start assembling your croutons.

Half-time: The Croutons

Sure, you could buy a big bag of store-bought stale crap. We're not about that over here, we want delicious and awesome and I'm not afraid of putting in a little elbow grease. Take any bread you've got handy and rip it up into some nice hearty chunks that won't be too big for you to take in a single bite. Toss 'em up with some olive oil (alas, I was out of olive oil and had to use peanut) and some of your dried spice/herbage. Get your oven going to 400F and stick 'em in for about 10 minutes or until crunchy. Obviously, these also rock for salads and warm fresh croutons always impress any friends you might have over.

Interesting side note, wikipedia suggests sautee'ing as an option. I wonder...

Back to The Bisque!

So, you've got your croutons getting ready and your bisque is starting to shape up with nice edible texture and deliciousness to the almost-trinity in the chicken stock. You're eating it straight out of the pot and its tastes good, right? This is the time to start adding in your potatoes and the rest of your fresh ingredients.

Strain your potatoes in a collander and get them into your forming bisque. While you're doing this, go ahead and take a turkey baster and get a good shot of the broth from the boiling shells. This will add a good shrimpy taste the whole matter, without having to overcook the shrimp. You can of course continue boiling the shells to get some awesome fish stock on hand.

Start with getting your mushrooms and parsley in there and letting them cook for about five minutes. Make sure that they're at a point where you'd eat them before mixing in the asparagus as you don't want it cooking for too long. If you've got Tabasco sauce on your mind, you can throw it in now too.

Once the asparagus is edible from the soup (notice a trend? I'm usually no longer hungry by the time I'm done eating. ;p) you're going to put your shrimp in. These guys should only take about five minutes or so and will change color to let you know they're done.

At this time begin mixing in your cream and sift in a bit of flour if you want it thicker. Your bisque is almost ready and your cats should be perched on your shoulder trying to snag a bite as you taste. It'll look a bit discolored at first, but after a bit it will pick up and get a nice creamy color. If it doesn't add more cream. This is the time to make sure everything tastes exactly how you want it, so feel free to season with salt, pepper or more tabasco sauce as you see fit.

Fin.

Your croutons should be getting done about now, and your bisque is definitely shaped up and looking good. Get yourself a hearty ladel full and top it with a nice layer of your giant croutons and be prepared for some awesome tastiness.

As usual, you can find the full photo set up @ flickr.