[Intro music]
Lobster Bisque, a grand soup!
A soup for special occasions.
This is probably the way I most enjoy eating lobster.
The flavours are so concentrated into the meat
that makes that soup truly amazing.
To make the beautiful Lobster Bisque, you will need
sliced shallots, sliced garlic, flour, butter,
olive oil, chopped chives, salt and pepper,
bay leaves, cognac, parsley, white wine, cream,
bread, a small mirepoix of onion, celery, carrot,
tomato paste, fresh tarragon, fish stock and lobster bodies;
of course the shells must be raw.
At the market you may have two options
either you purchase whole lobster
or you ask your fish vendor for body parts
and those are pieces without meat and usually they are sold at a fraction of the cost.
Not bad, as we don't need the meat for our bisque.
Let's heat the big pot on high heat.
Add the oil, add the small mirepoix of celery, onion and carrot.
So here I have a branch of celery, one medium onion and one carrot.
Add the shallots, the bay leaves, the chopped garlic or sliced garlic,
the parsley, break it in pieces; give it a stir.
So I am using a large pot because in a few minutes,
I am going to be crushing the shells.
Sweat the vegetables for about 2 minutes.
Then add the shells.
So with a rolling pin, crush the shells.
Give it a stir.
Smells really good!
This is why you want to have a big pot.
Prepare a lighter; add the cognac over the shells.
And lovely!
The flame of the cognac will burn off and the flavour will remain.
Add the white wine when the flame dies.
Give it a good stir.
Add the tomato paste and the fish stock.
Mix well.
Get all the ingredients.
I didn’t chop my tarragon earlier as if you chop
your tarragon too much in advance, it will get blackened.
So let's do that now. I am going to reserve a little bit
for the end; like about a quarter cup.
And I am going to chop those leaves.
So this is French tarragon. I have washed the tarragon earlier and
I have removed and separated the leaves from their stems.
So for the tarragon, chop your tarragon very finely
to extract the maximum of flavours.
At the end, you should have a little bit more of 2
tablespoons of finely chopped tarragon.
Add the tarragon.
Give it a good stir.
You can smell that at your home.
It's very fragrant!
We could smell the shellfish, the cognac, the wine
and the vegetables. Very nice.
Cook the bisque for about 45 minutes to one hour
on medium low heat, just to simmer gently
and meanwhile, let's prepare our Beurre manié.
Beurre manié is an uncooked equal amount of
butter and flour; and today, in our soup, it will be used
as thickening agent.
To make a Beurre manié, have your butter
soft at room temperature, it's much easier to work with
and add the flour. Combine both the ingredients using a fork.
Reserve the Beurre manié at room temperature until further use.
Stir the bisque every 15 minutes or so,
making sure that the shells are totally covered by the liquid.
Our bisque has been simmering for 45 minutes.
Let's thicken it now.
So first of all, I am going to divide the Beurre manié
in half. So here we go.
Then I am going to add some of the liquid from the bisque
into the Beurre manié.
Mix well.
And add it to the bisque, just like so.
So you don't want to put all the Beurre manié at once
because you want to control the consistency.
For sure, you don’t want to end up with glue!
Taste. It's little bit salty already.
Even though we didn’t put any salt, but we got the salt from
the lobsters, so a pinch of salt and freshly ground peppercorn.
Mix.
We can thicken the soup just a little bit more.
So I am going to get about a tablespoon of the Beurre manié
into the bowl. Add some bisque.
Mix well.
And add it to the bisque again.
Check the consistency, so you want something
just to coat a little bit the back of the spoon.
Slightly, you don’t want it too thick either.
Strain the bisque.
So I am passing the soup through a conical strainer.
Smells wonderful!
And you want to press down the shells in order to
dry them up.
When the soup is strained, then bring it to a boil again.
Chop the tarragon.
Add the cream, taste.
Wow! Very nice!
Great flavours!
I wont put any salt; just a pinch of pepper.
Add the tarragon.
Perfect! Let's serve the soup.
Serve the bisque in a braided soup plate.
Sprinkle some chives all around.
Tarragon lobster bisque. Bon appétit!