Old Hippie Chef: Seafood Bisque

As we can see the titles of my blogs are taking on the names of food dishes that I feature each week. I cook every week, usually something different so I might as well blog about it . Not only do you get my witty and insightful repartee of life each week, but you get a good recipe out of it. It's sorta like Cracker Jacks, you get the crappy caramel corn (my witty repartee), but it's the little prize that you actually covet i.e., the recipes.

My neighbors are from Boston, Red Socks fans, which I don't hold against them. They're very nice people with three adorable lovely children. They just came back from New Hampshire and mentioned that lobster is $3.50 a pound there. Of course when I heard this my mouth began to water at the sound of lobster, which also brought to mind lobster bisque.

I love soups. They're fairly easy to construct, and they last for days. Since I still had some rock fish left over from the vomit trip outside the Golden Gate, and a can of good crab meat I decided to make a seafood bisque. I procured a pound of jumbo prawns, and using the shells from those, and the bones and leftovers from the rock fish I built my stock for the bisque.

Soups, stocks, and sauces are the foundation of classic culinary cuisine. If anyone is serious about cooking these skills must be mastered. I've said this a thousand times if I've said it once; "If I can do it, anyone can." I've also said that cooking is not easy, it's hard work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. I once asked a chef in this restaurant that I was working at if I could go home after having worked for 12 hours, and he looked at me a bit disgusted, his head tilted back, and in his best American/French accent said; "That's only half a day Marcel, get back to work." I worked 15 hours that day.

Cooking is the most elementary form of chemistry that we know. You put ingredients together, chill, add heat, let it sit at room temperature, add yeast, whatever, and see how these ingredients and forces react to one another. I feel if you can keep it simple, and let the natural flavor of the foods be front and center instead of the letting the spices, herbs and marinades dominate the primary food then you've got it made.

Most of the people you see cooking on TV, that's not real. The English guy, chef Ramsey, who yells at people, if he did that to me I'd have to kick his ass. I've never actually seen an episode of that show. I can't even watch the trailers. You don't get the best out of people by yelling at them. Not only is it not reality TV, it's not in the real world.

It seem like everyone is trying to outdo everyone else these days. For me it will always be the basics with some twists and turns, a little fusion of this with that, but the basics rule. If I have to have another bowl, another bite, if I pick up the crumbs with my fingers, ask for seconds and have to have more, then I know I hit a home run. Those are the only recipes I will post on this blog. If I haven't got anything good for the week I won't do a blog.

So, here's my recipe for seafood bisque. It goes well with nice crisp salad, a fresh rustic baguette, and maybe a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Peace,

Make Food, Not War

Seafood Bisque

Ingredients:

1 cup of onion minced
1 medium carrot minced
2 stalks of celery minced
1 quart of fish stock
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup parsley chopped fine
8 oz. crab meat
1 pound white fish 1/2" cubes
1 lb. jumbo shrimp, shelled and devained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
olive oil for cooking
1 cup white wine (optional)

1) In a medium sauce pan with a quart and one cup of water place the shrimp shells and any fish bones or scraps you have for your stock. Bring to a boil and then let simmer. About 15 minutes. Strain the mixture in a bowl and put aside.

2) In your cast iron Dutch oven add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and saute your carrots, onions and celery till they are soft.

2) Once the above is done put the carrots, onions and celery and two cups of the fish stock in a blender and pulse on high till everything is incorporated.

3) In the Dutch oven melt the butter and add the flour slowly and make a roux.

4) Add the heavy cream slowly to the roux and whisk making sure no lumps form.

5) Then add the fish stock, the shrimp, the fish, the crab meat and all the other ingredients.

6) Bring to a boil and cut the heat to simmer. Add the white wine and let cook for 45 minutes stirring the bottom occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn.

7) Rapid cool and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Note: Soups always taste better the day after. It need time to sit, chill, and let the ingredients marry together.

Reheat slowly and serve with sour dough bread or a rustic baguette.