Crab Bisque.

Good neighbor Bobby brought us Blue Crabs the other evening.

Aren't they beautiful?

Here they are, ready to take a little sauna.

For a dozen crabs, put about 1/2 inch - 1 inch water in the pot, cover, turn on the heat, bring to boil for about 6 minutes, then turn off and let sit.

Picking crabs is time-consuming and messy work, but well worth the effort. No wonder they get upwards of $20/pound.

And here's almost 1 pound of meat from 13 crabs. Mr. Hawthorne wants Crab Bisque. And Crab Bisque he shall have.

My mise en place: bowl of crabmeat cipollini onions shallot sweet potato (Remember, I have an abundance of them.) celery bay leaf carrot red bell pepper baby bella mushrooms homemade chicken consomme heavy cream sherry

Homemade croutons up next. I had a loaf of multi-grain Artisan bread and parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano.

Here, I'm thawing out the block of chicken consomme.

I forgot to add in some garlic with my herbs.

Mince the herbs and garlic and cube the bread.

I melted this much butter and added extra light Bertolli Olive Oil.

Add in the herbs and garlic. Never overcook garlic. It will taste bitter.

Then pour in the bread crumbs, tossing to coat.

Cook for a few minutes, tossing and turning, then put in slow oven (250-300 degrees) until nice and crunchy.

Here's my chicken stock.

Now, on to the bisque. First, I cut about 6 slices of bacon into itty pieces.

Added in a couple of bay leaves and cooked it up.

I have diced sweet potato, sliced baby bella mushrooms, minced carrot, celery, and red bell pepper, and chopped cipollini onions (a very delicate, sweet onion) and chopped garlic.

Bacon's almost ready.

I'm using my pasta pot, so the bacon joos was very easy to drain off through the holes in the lid. Dixie got the bacon joos on her kibble. She's a happy dog.

Next I added the sweet potato. I decided on sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes since: A. I have plenty, and 2. I opted for the extra sweetness and richness.

Carrots go in.

Then the celery.

And the shallots and onions.

I sauteed the shrooms in a separate pan until nicely browned. Don't add salt to mushrooms when sauteeing until after they're sauteed. If you add the salt at the beginning, the salt draws out the moisture in the shrooms and steams them instead of sauteeing them.

Next, a bit of flour goes in, maybe 1/4 cup. Cook for several minutes to get the raw taste of the flour out.

Add in the sherry. This is my favorite part since it smells so good.

Then the stock goes in. Just a little bit at a time so it doesn't get lumpy. Keep on stirring.

And keep on adding.

Since I cut back all the foliage on one of my asparagus plants a couple of weeks ago, I have new shoots coming up every day now. I sliced a couple of these on the diagonal.

And the asparagus goes into the pot.

Heavy cream goes in.

And now, the sweet, tender, succulent, wonderful crab meat.

Diced red bell pepper goes in at the end. Just barely heat through. Nothing else needs cooking.

And here's my crab bisque, with garnishes of croutons, parsley, and celery leaves.

Every spoonful is a delicious experience of flavors, tastes, and textures. And all the flavors stand out on their own but don't overpower anything else. And most importantly, you can TASTE the CRAB. In case you are questioning my use of flavor and taste in the above paragraph, I knew I was talking about two different things and was trying to describe two separate entities. I just didn't know exactly what until I googled it and got this.