Lobster Bisque is not lobster bisque without the sherry.....in my humble opinion!
I fell in love with Lobster Bisque in Montreal. The ones I had there typically had a lot of sherry going on in them. And they were topped with crusty, flaky puff pastry. The bisque would sort of ooze out the side sometimes.... oh.... I could go on....
I was making this Dublin Lawyer and I had a whole lobster carcass and leftover shrimp shells. I wasn't going to let that opportunity go to waste!
So I decided to make seafood stock and lobster bisque because I had about 5 ounces of extra lobster meat. I used frozen lump lobster but you are going to puree it so you could just get the cheaper frozen minced lobster if you want.
This soup is rich... it has lots of the prerequisite sherry and cream... oh... and the puff pastry.
Okay... it is pretty decadent...so use it to splurge on company when you want to impress. Or..how about it on a cold winter night to warm you through and through. You're worth it!
Ingredients
Lobster stock
- 1 lobster carcass cleaned of meat and innards
- shells from 1 lb jumbo shrimp optional
- ½ cup white wine or replace with more water
- 4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon ketchup or tomato paste
Bisque
- 1 carrot chopped
- 1 celery stalk rough choppped
- 1 yellow onion rough chopped
- 2 Tbsps vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 Tbsps ketchup or tomato paste
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 ½ cups sherry
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 5 oz lobster meat can be minced
- 1 cup cream I used 10%
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 oz puff pastry
Instructions
- Add all stock ingredients to a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer about 20 minutes. Strain out solids and reserve stock.
- While stock is simmering, in the bottom of a dutch oven, saute the carrot, celery and onion in the oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another minute.
- Add the ketchup and cayenne and stir well. Add the sherry and ignite. Shake the pan gently until the flames subside.
- Add the thyme and the salt. Add the lobster meat and stir well. Add the stock and the cream. Simmer about 8 minutes.
- Remove from heat. You are going to puré all the ingredients so allow mixture to cool slightly before transferring to your blender.
- While mixture is cooling, roll out puff pastry to package instructions while mixture is cooling down. Cut out 6 shapes just slightly larger than the top of your oven proof soup bowls.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Blend seafood mixture until smooth. If you have a high powered blender it will get smooth enough. If you don't have a high power blends then blend well and pour through a sieve to catch the grit.
- Divide bisque among 6 oven proof soup bowls. Top with puff pastry and pinch the pastry to the edge of the soup bowl. Bake the soup bowls for about 10- 12 minutes until puff pastry is golden brown.
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