23.4 Bisques and cream soups

A bisque is a smooth, creamy soup of French origin, strongly seasoned. The classic kind is built on a strained broth, or coulis, of crustaceans: lobster, langoustine, crab, shrimp or crayfish. see chapter 12: Mollusks and crustaceans

The bisque began as a way to get flavor out of shellfish that were not good enough to sell. In a true bisque the shells are ground into a smooth paste that helps thicken the soup. So much flavor clings to the pans that nothing should be washed until the soup is finished.

The traditional thickener is rice. It can be strained out, leaving its starch behind, or puréed into the soup near the end. By tradition, a seafood bisque comes in a mug, or in a low two-handled cup set on a saucer.

The word has also spread to creamy soups with no seafood at all, where the ingredients, sometimes cooked first, are puréed in a food processor or food mill. Squash, tomato, mushroom and red pepper bisques are common.

Old way and new way

Today's bisque mixes the cream soup and purée soup methods. It is usually made from shrimp, lobster or crawfish, and roux has replaced rice because it gives a steadier, more even thickness.

The traditional bisque differs in two ways:

• It would not be garnished with pieces of the seafood.
• It would use very little heavy cream, or none.

South Louisiana has its own versions:

• Crawfish bisque there has stuffed crawfish heads, or boulettes (small balls), dropped into the soup.
• Crab and corn, and crawfish and corn, are made by the cream soup method.
• Lobster bisque follows the traditional method, with roux added for both flavor and thickness.
• Shrimp bisque follows the traditional method.

Making a bisque

• Sauté the mirepoix and the main flavoring ingredient in fat until they caramelize. see chapter 8: Sauté and pan-frying
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• Add a tomato product, then deglaze the pan with alcohol.
• Add the stock, and roux if the soup needs it.
• Simmer, skimming as you go.
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• Purée, then strain.
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• Purée again with cooked white rice to bring the soup to the right thickness.
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• Simmer, then finish with hot cream or with cold compound butter.
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• Garnish.
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