Rosie Makes Fish Soup.

 Fish Soup.

Doesn't sound all that appetizing, does it?

What if I called it Piscine Potage?

Or Multi-Ocean Creature Bouillabaisse?

Mr. Hawthorne and I were at Food Lion

and he picked up the Alaskan Cod on sale.

I cut it up in small chunks.

I heated up a tablespoon each 

of unsalted butter and extra virgin olive oil.

I'm partial to Olio Carli extra virgin.

I dropped the cod filets into the hot butter/oil.

I had previously seasoned them with freshly ground pepper.

Sauté about 3 minutes.

Good splash of Chardonnay.

Steamy!

Steamy!

I want to make this intense,

so I went downstairs to the freezer

 (#1 of 3 in the utility room - Mr. Hawthorne has issues.

And I have to deal.)

and came up with a quart of lobster bisque.

I semi-thawed it out in hot water

and added it to the cod.

 I added in the last of my Lobster Thermidor mixture
I'd made the day before.
Heat through.

Season with a mere sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning.

I have lobster, shrimp, and cod in here.

More seafood than broth.

I like that.

The thing about cod 

is that it takes on the flavors of whatever surrounds it.

You put cod with shrimp,

it tastes like shrimp.

You put cod with scallops,

it tastes like scallops.

You put cod with lobster,

it tastes like lobster!

This is intense lobster flavor.

Try a bit of saffron if you're a fan.

Lovin' the lobster.

Sometimes I surprise myself.

Rosie Makes Lobster Bisque.

 

For some reason,

the Hawthornes had lobster in their freezer.

I think we'd found lobsters on sale

and had bought a bunch.

We ate what we could

and froze the last three.

Wrap in plastic, then wrap in newspaper,

secure it with brown tape,

wet the newspaper, and freeze.

I'm ready for lobster bisque.

Mr. Hawthorne picked the lobsters.

I found a quart of shrimp stock in my freezer.
For directions on how to make shrimp stock,
click on the above link.
 

Let the shrimp stock thaw in a pan of hot water.

I'm going to sauté a large shallot,

some celery, some anemic scallions, serrano pepper,

and two mushrooms (All that I had.) in butter and oil,

then add flour to make a roux.

Then I'll add in about 2 cups of the stock

and 1 cup of heavy cream and let thicken,

stirring occasionally.

A splash of sherry at the end.

Then drop in the chopped asparagus

and lobster and let heat through.

Orange zest on top,

along with some fresh tarragon.

I finely chopped the scallion, shallot, and serrano.

Slice the mushrooms,

Coarse chop the asparagus,

and mince the tarragon.

I heated a tablespoon each of oil and butter

until the butter started to foam.

Then add in the shallots.

Add in the celery, scallion, and serrano.

Add in the shrooms.

Cook about a minute.

Add 1/4 cup of flour and cook about two minutes

to cook the raw out of the flour.

Stir constantly.

Next, slowly pour in 2 cups of shrimp stock.

Keep stirring.

You want smooth - no lumps.

Cook over low, whisking.

Add in heavy cream.

I added about 1/4 cup of sherry.

Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

Taste test.

You want the bisque to coat a wooden spoon.

I love this texture - very smooth and velvety.

Continue to heat over low heat,

stirring occasionally, until desired consistency is reached.

I taste-tested again

and gave it a few more grinds of salt and pepper.

Add in the asparagus.

This asparagus was just picked from the garden.

It doesn't need cooking - it's that tender.

Just add it to the pot and heat through.

Give the lobster a coarse chop.

That's the texture I want.

If you wanted.

you could stop right here.

This tastes so good now.

The shrimp flavor is perfect.

If you didn't have lobster,

you could add in shrimp or scallops or even cod now.

I would sauté them first,

since I don't want to put raw seafood in the bisque.

I'd have to turn up the heat to cook them

and that would change this perfect consistency.

Add in the lobster chunks and heat through.

And serve.

Top with orange zest, fresh tarragon, and infused paprika oil.

For the oil,

I roasted hot Hungarian paprika in a dry pan,

then add some oil and heat through.

Pour into plastic mini-squeeze bottles.

Keeps in the fridge for a long time.

This is one of those dishes

with so many flavors and textures

that I want a bite of everything in one spoonful.

Hawthorne Haiku:

Creamy silkiness.

Zest of orange.  Tarragon.

Lobster, 'sparagus.

Bon appétit.

Rosie Makes a Lobster Bisque.

Lobsters are one of my favorite crustaceans to eat.

Notice I'm calling this a bisque. When I looked up the definition of bisque, I found this: "a thick cream soup, especially of puréed shellfish or vegetables."

I have a thick cream soup,

but I just can't bring myself to pureeing any shellfish. That goes against my grain. I like chunks of seafood.

Here are our lobsters going into their sauna.

Mr. Hawthorne put the little buggers into a full steam bath. Their sauna lasted about 12 minutes and now they're nice and pink.

Meet Kendall, Brooke, and Phoebe.

Mr. Hawthorne picks the meat out of the shell. Lobster ain't as bad as crab to pick, but it's still a bitch. I leave all the picking to Mr. Hawthorne. I'm not throwing out the shells because I want to extract as much lobster flavor as I can. First, I'm making a lobster stock.

I dumped the lobster shells into my pan with LOLUB and ELBOO.

Start cooking over medium high heat.

Mr. Hawthorne had picked crabs earlier, so I'm using the crab shells too.

I cooked the shells for about 20 minutes in the oil and butter, crushing the shells to release more flavor.

Keep crushing.

After about 20 minutes, I added in some bay leaves ...

... and 4 quarts of water to cover the shells.

Add in about a tablespoon of peppercorns.

Bring the broth to a bare simmer, then dial it back. You never want this to boil because boiling release impurities. Keep it on the low side of simmer for about 30 minutes.

Mr. Hawthorne bought the chinois for my birthday.

I strained the lobster and crab broth through the chinois.

Remove any oil on the surface.

Strain again through cheesecloth.

For my bisque, I'm using 2 potatoes, 2 stalks of celery, two carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 onion.

Dice all the veggies.

Generally, I would use bacon here, but didn't have any. What I did have was prosciutto and ham.

Dice the meats and add to the LOLUB and ELBOO.

When the ham and prosciutto is browned ...

... add in the taters ...

... onions, garlic, and carrots ...

... and celery.

Saute for a minute or two.

Pretty veggies.

Next, I added in 3 cups of water or enough to cover and simmered until the potatoes were tender.

While the veggies were simmering, I continued to get excess oil out of the lobster and crab stock.

Discard the excess.

When the potatoes were tender, I added in two tablespoons of tomato paste.

Add in 2-3 cups of lobster/crab stock.

Add in 2 cups heavy cream.

1/4 cup wine going in.

My bisque needed a bit of thickening, so I'm making a cornstarch slurry.

Mix 1/4 cup cornstarch with 1/4 cup white wine. Stir to dissolve and ...

... pour into bisque.

Here are my little pretties.

Chop the lovely lobsters and ...

... add to the pot. Heat through. Turn off heat and let the flavors marry.

I sprinkled a little fresh thyme and tarragon in my bisque. Are you wondering what the little brown things are? Anyone care to make a guess?*

I added a few pieces of shrimp for good measure. This was deliciously creamy, velvety, and rich - full of intense lobster and crab flavors. * The little brown thingies are Lobster Rangoons. Recipe coming up.