Shrimp Bisque

Several months ago, Ariel and I attended a cooking class in Sioux Falls led by Lance White, who runs a cafe and catering business. He demonstrated four dishes: Caesar salad, shrimp bisque, a deconstructed beef wellington with mashed potatoes, and cream puffs. While all the food was good, the shrimp bisque, which he presented as a template to produce all sorts of simple soups, was the most interesting to me. Throwing in the shallots and garlic, skin and all, was particularly eye opening. This recipe is my version of the dish I learned from Chef Lance. A traditional bisque has a lot going on, and this recipe is not meant to be that. It is a quick and easy way to get a tasty soup on the table with readily available ingredients. 

I appreciated that Lance emphasized cooking by feel and didn't give exact recipes. It was more about applying the techniques and mindset of professional chefs to home cooking. Although I try to be precise in my recipes on the blog, my day-to-day cooking is a lot looser. I have to force myself to measure to write the recipes, which can sometimes lead to overthinking things. Any of the proportions here, like most of my posts, can be adjusted to taste. 

The main difference from the original is that I make a homemade shrimp stock, where he used Better than Bouillon lobster base. I'm unable to get that around here, but with my stockpiles of frozen shrimp shells, making my own stock is no problem. What I do here is very similar to my Chinese stock, but I use the classic French mirepoix instead of ginger and scallion. Doing this increases the time required, but it's a mostly unattended 2 hours that can be done well in advance. I also make double the needed stock, so the next time I can just defrost and go. I am also continuing to experiment with potato starch as a thickener. The original used corn starch, which is perfectly fine, too.

Ingredients

• 4 cups shrimp stock (recipe included)
• 4 cups tomato juice (I used V8)
• 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and cleaned (save and freeze the shells for your next soup)
• 2 shallots
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 Tbs. potato starch
• 1 tsp. dried dill weed (or to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Shrimp Stock (makes enough for two batches of bisque)

• 2 handfuls shrimp shells
• 1 small onion or shallot (I used some of both)
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery rib

Instructions 

If making shrimp stock, put the shrimp shells in a 4-quart saucepan. Fill up with water. Roughly chop the onion, carrot, and celery and add to the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours. 

Strain the stock and discard the shells and vegetables. Divide the stock in half. Reserve half for another use (freeze it) and keep the other half in the refrigerator until needed.

To make the soup, prepare two large saucepans. In the first pan, add the tomato juice and bring to a boil. As the juice heats, roughly chop the shallots (about 8 pieces) and smash the garlic. Put the shallots and garlic in the tomato juice, skins and all. Let this simmer about 20 minutes.

In the other pan, bring the shrimp stock to a boil. Add the shrimp and poach until just barely done, only a few minutes. Use a spider strainer or slotted spoon to remove the shrimp. Place the shrimp in the freezer to stop cooking. Pour the stock into the first pan with the tomato juice.

Stir the cream into the soup and strain out the shallot and garlic. I just did this into the now-empty second saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir a little water into the potato starch to form a slurry and add to the soup. Season to taste with dill, salt, and pepper. Since the stock is unsalted, quite a bit of salt is needed here.

To prepare each bowl of soup, chop up several shrimp into small pieces and place in bowl. Use enough shrimp to cover the bottom of the bowl. Ladle in soup and serve immediately.