Crabby Bisque Recipes

Steps:

• Remove the claws from the crabs and quarter the bodies. Heat a 6-quart stockpot. Add the oil and saute the crab pieces until they are red. Remove the pieces as they are cooked. Add the carrot, celery, tomatoes, garlic, shallots, and tarragon and continue to saute for 10 minutes. Pour in the cognac and ignite. When the flame has subsided, deglaze with white wine, and add the tomato paste, crab, and enough fish stock to cover. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme, and bay leaf and boil gently for 15 minutes.
• In a small saucepan, reduce the cream by half. Remove the crab bodies from the pot and set aside. Add the reduced cream to the soup. Puree the soup, in batches, in a food processor. Strain the pureed soup and keep warm.
• Remove the meat from the claws and cut into bite-size pieces and add to the soup. Season with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Serve in heated soup bowls and garnish with minced chives or parsley.

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, combine bisque, 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, lemon juice, parsley, and crabmeat with juices and bring to a simmer over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes. Season soup, to taste, with salt and cayenne pepper. Divide soup among 6 bowls. Add 1 tablespoon of cream to each bowl and swirl with butter knife to create a pretty design. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Spray a stockpot with cooking spray.
• Melt butter in the prepared stockpot over medium heat; cook and stir celery, onion, paprika, seafood seasoning, thyme, salt, and white pepper until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Whisk flour into vegetable mixture until smooth and dissolved. Pour seafood stock over vegetable mixture.
• Mix half-and-half, cream, and milk into broth mixture; decrease heat and simmer until bisque is thickened, about 15 minutes. Add crabmeat and simmer bisque until crabmeat is heated through, about 5 minutes more.

Steps:

• If using live crabs, add to pot of boiling water using tongs. Cover pot and cook over high heat until crab shells are red, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain crabs in a colander.
• Put crabs (cooked or frozen uncooked) into a large metal roasting pan. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and pound shells with meat pounder to crush (including claws).
• Heat butter and oil in same pot over medium-high heat until foam subsides, then cook onion, carrot, celery, and garlic with bay leaf, thyme, clove, peppercorns, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add Cognac, wine, and crushed crabs and bring to a boil. Add broth and water and return to a boil. Skim foam, then simmer, covered, stirring and skimming occasionally, 1 hour.
• Put colander in a large bowl, then drain crab broth, reserving solids for crab butter (if making). Transfer broth to a medium saucepan.
• Ladle out 2 cups broth and transfer to a 1-quart saucepan. Add rice and simmer, covered, until very tender, 15 to 20 minutes (not all of liquid will be absorbed).
• Blend together rice with cooking liquid and 1 cup more crab broth in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), then add to remaining broth in medium saucepan.
• Just before serving, reheat bisque over medium heat until hot, then stir in tarragon, lemon juice, cayenne, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
• Ladle bisque into bowls and spoon a little crabmeat into center, then drizzle with some of crab butter (if making).

Steps:

• Saute onion and carrot in 2 tablespoons butter until soft. Set aside.
• In 4 quart saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter and add flour, whisking constantly over medium heat until roux becomes light brown (about 5 minutes). DO NOT BURN!
• Slowly add chicken broth, whisking constantly to ensure mixture stays smooth.
• Add onions and carrots, cover, and simmer for 1/2 hour.
• Add cream, sherry, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, salt, and lobster or crab and simmer an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
• Garnish with fresh minced chives if desired.

Steps:

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute celery and onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended; gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. , Stir in the bouillon, cream, crab, mushrooms, basil, garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon Creole seasoning and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Season to taste with remaining Creole seasoning and pepper if desired.

Steps:

• Saute onion in the butter, over medium heat, until translucent.
• Add 2 T. of the flour to the onions, mixing well with a wooden spoon. Cook for about a minute.
• Add 3 cups of the half-and-half, heavy cream, salt and pepper. Whisk while bringing up to a boil (you can turn up the heat a bit here - just be careful not to scald the cream).
• Shake 2 T. of the flour and 1 cup of the half-and-half - using a jar with a lid. Shake until the flour is blended well.
• Add to the soup by whisking. Keep whisking until the soup thickens.
• Stir in the crab and cook for about 5 more minutes.
• Ladle the soup into the bowls and garnish with snipped chives, if desired.