Shrimp Bisque

May 18th, with the odd spring weather we’re still having I was contemplating soup. Poking around the freezer I found some shrimp shells that I had frozen. I knew I had some potatoes to use up so my mind turned to Shrimp Bisque. Now I’ve tried making it once before but it was a salty thin mess without a lot of body or flavor. I found a recipe in Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way for Lobster Bisque and made my variation that I thought was pretty good. I took a 4-5 quart sauce pan and added 3-4 Tbs. of good olive oil and brought it up to just below the smoking point, I added what would be the shells from 2-3 lbs of shrimp stirring occasionally until the shells became fragrant and started taking on a dark caramelized appearance on some of the shells. I added 1 cup each of chopped Vidalia onion and celery, 4 peeled and crushed cloves of garlic and cooked until vegetables became soft. I then added 2 Tbs. spoons of tomato paste to a cleared out “hot spot” in my pan to cook the paste for a few minutes. I mixed 2 Tbs. of flour to ¾ cup of dry white wine until smooth in a measuring cup and added it to my pot. I then put approximately 1/4 cup of wine in the measuring cup to clean out the residue and added this to the pot. Since I didn’t have any shrimp stock I used about 16 oz. of a chicken vegetable stock I made along with two fresh sprigs of thyme, half a tsp. of Herbs de Provence 1/4 tsp. of cayenne and 1 Tbs. of cognac. I then added about 20 oz of half and half and left the pot on low heat for about 30 minutes to steep. The whole thing was strained through a sieve, pushing on the solids with the back of a spoon to get all the liquid. I let the mixture cool, placed plastic wrap in contact with the surface of the soup and stored it in the fridge. Next day I re-warmed the soup in a pot, added more chicken stock to thin along with 4 cubed potatoes, 4-6 oz of corn, small diced red pepper, with some reserved as garnish, and left on low for 3 hours to gently cook the new veggies so the half and half would not break at a boil. I added the red pepper and chopped chives to the bowls as garnish prior to service. IT WAS GOOD.