By But I like cocktails and lurking

Not all roux’s are created equally. Despite the unique, delicious flavor of a flour/oil roux, it isn’t suitable for all dishes. You can make a roux from flour/butter and though the process is the same the resulting taste is quite different. A proper bisque requires a creamier base, usually seafood stock with milk or cream, and can require a fair amount of preparation. Since we are concerned with shortening time and effort, we will take a few shortcuts and still end up with a gourmet quality soup. It is a little more effort than the other recipes but well worth it. At least a dozen times every year people call me requesting that I prepare this.

12oz – 16oz frozen cooked and prepared seafood (crawfish is my favorite but shrimp or lobster is fine)
1 can of chipped crab meat (the cheap stuff, not the expensive lump meat)
2/3 stick of butter
½ of a medium sweet onion – chopped
¼ cup of white flour
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 to 1-1/2 quarts of whole milk
6 chicken boullion cubes
1 capfull of Zataran’s liquid crab boil
1 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic or 1 teaspoon of powdered garlic

Melt the butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Toss in the chopped onion and garlic, then stir. Make sure the onion/garlic is well coated in butter and stir occasionally until the onion starts to become clear.

Sprinkle the flour over the butter/onion with your hand. Swish around with your spoon until the flour is saturated with butter and evenly mixed in. Keep stirring and cooking until you see your butter going from yellow to a light tan. Don’t let the flour stick to the pot or darken too much. You have just made a blonde roux with onions and garlic.

Quickly pour in the pint of heavy whipping cream that you had open and sitting in easy reach. Swish around with a whisk and scrape the bottom of the pot until all of the roux is evenly mixed. Pour in your milk. Toss in the chicken boullion, cayenne, liquid crab boil, and the can of crab meat. Note that the crab meat has a small piece of paper in it. Don’t put the paper in your soup, but make sure you do put the liquid from the can in with the meat.

Homemade Seafood Bisque with Cream and Parsley

Stir this well and turn the heat up to medium high. Bring it to a boil and keep stirring constantly. After it begins to boil count slowly to 30 while you stir, making sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot, and watch carefully that the pot doesn’t boil over. If it appears that the pot may boil over simply remove from heat and turn heat down before putting the pot back on. After you have counted to 30 with the pot boiling, turn the heat down to simmer, and stir in your seafood meat. Make sure you put all of the liquid from the seafood in with the meat. The bisque should thicken as it cools.

If you want to fancy it up serve in a bowl and sprinkle with fresh chopped green onion or chives and some garlic bread. Otherwise just serve in a bowl.

*Some people like whole kernel corn in their seafood bisque. If you are one of those people, simply add a can of whole kernel corn after you have completed the process. If you want it creamier still or to add a slightly different flavor you can add in a half-cup of sour cream or cream cheese.

This is NOT a low carb dish but is so creamy and delicious that it will become a favorite. If you have all of your ingredients out and a relatively clean kitchen, a pot, knife, and whisk handy you can whip this up in under twenty minutes.