Etymologically the word “bisque” is related to Biscay, the province of Spain. That was a name of spicy dish with boiled meat or game in the Spanish cuisine. Gradually bisque were made of poultry, and served to lobsters and cheese. And in the 17th century, seafood, and most crayfish became the main ingredient of bisque.
Bisque soup recipe from Yuri traditionally contains cream, wine and brandy. But in this recipe the brand-chef, unlike in other recipes, uses white wine instead of red. Bisque soups taste delicious, and accompanied by pike cutlets the dish stands as a true masterpiece.
If someone tells me he doesn’t like soups, I do not believe his words. A kind of similar soup was given to us, kids, in the childhood, as our first soup. That’s impossible not to like it. And may be during this ‘soup-eating procedure’, a grandma was playing a rattle, and a father played drums, an elder sister was jumping up to the ceiling to distract you, and at that time a mother was quickly feeding you with a spoon. But the fact remains, you were eating a cream soup.
Ingredients
Method
- Bring the 3 litres of water with the 3 tbsp of salt to the boil in the large pot.
- Add the crayfish and boil for 3 minutes.
- Take the pot off the heat and leave the crayfish in the water for 30 minutes.
- Lift out the crayfish, twist off the tails, peel them and refrigerate the tail meat.
- Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
- Spread the heads, shells and claws on the baking tray and roast for about 10 minutes, until dry and deep red.
- Blend the roasted shells with 500 ml of the fish stock to a coarse paste, or crush them in a strong bowl with the end of a rolling pin.
- Melt the butter in the heavy saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion, carrot and celery for about 20 minutes, stirring often, until light golden.
- Pour in the brandy and let it bubble for 30 seconds.
- Add the wine, turn up the heat and boil until reduced by half, 5–8 minutes.
- Add the shell paste, the remaining 500 ml of stock, the bread torn into pieces and the bouquet garni.
- Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45–60 minutes.
- Remove the bouquet garni and the larger claw pieces.
- Strain the soup through the sieve into a clean pan, pressing hard on the solids.
- Strain it again through the fine sieve to remove any shell fragments.
- Stir in the cream and warm the bisque over low heat without boiling; season with salt.
- For the panade, heat the milk with 20 g of butter in the small saucepan until the butter melts.
- Add the flour all at once and stir over low heat for 1–2 minutes, until the paste comes away from the sides.
- Spread the panade on a plate and let it cool completely.
- Blend the pike in the food processor to a smooth paste.
- Add the cooled panade, egg, nutmeg, pepper and salt and pulse until combined.
- Add the 80 g of cold butter and blend until smooth and shiny.
- Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes.
- Line the steamer with baking paper and bring the water to the boil.
- Shape 12 small cutlets or ovals with two wet teaspoons and set them on the paper.
- Steam for 6–8 minutes, until puffed and firm to the touch.
- Warm the crayfish tails in the bisque for 1 minute.
- Ladle the bisque and tails into warm bowls and add 3 pike cutlets to each.
- Top with caviar and microgreens and serve with the toasted baguette.
- Boil 3 liters of water in a large saucepan, salt it, add the crayfish and boil for 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool in the broth for 30-50 minutes.
- Take out the crayfish, removing the crayfish tails and set them aside.
- Put the claws and shells on a baking sheet and dry them in the oven at 220⁰S until golden-red color for about 10 minutes.
- Take out the baking sheet from the oven, sprinkle the shells with heated brandy and immediately set on fire, let the flame burn out.
- Put the shells in the blender, add half of the broth and blend until smooth.
- Chop the veggies into small cubes.
- Melt 70 g of butter in a saucepan with a thick bottom, add the veggies on medium heat until a light golden brown (about 20 minutes), stirring it constantly.
- Add the wine, increase the heat and evaporate a half of the liquid.
- Add the claws and the broth to the pan, beat up the shells and bouquet garni.
- Bring the soup to a boil at medium heat, reduce heat and cook under the lid for 60 minutes.
- Remove the bouquet garni and claws out of the pan.
- Strain the bisque through a sieve into a clean saucepan, add the cream.
- Whisk the mixture and warm at low heat, without boiling.
- Grind all the ingredients for the cutlets.
- Mix well until smooth.
- Shape small cutlets and cook them steamed for 1-2 minutes.
- Pour the warm bisque in bowls, put a pike cutlet into each bowl, decorate the dish.
What we changed for home
- Recipe written for 4 servings The technical card is headed 'per portion', but 1 kg of crayfish and a litre of broth make about four bowls.
- Brandy added to the pot and boiled off, instead of poured over the hot shells and set alight Flaming a baking tray straight from a 220°C (425°F) oven is risky at home; the brandy flavour is the same.
- Bread used to thicken the bisque, 50 g instead of 100 g The list has 'toast bread', but the method never uses it. Classic bisques are thickened with bread or rice blended into the soup; half the amount gives a light, creamy body.
- Pike cutlets steamed for 6–8 minutes instead of 1–2 Cutlets of raw fish, butter and egg need several minutes to set in the middle; after 1–2 minutes they are still raw inside.
- Panade for the cutlets written out: the milk, flour and some of the butter cooked into a thick paste The original says only 'grind all the ingredients'; raw flour and milk would make the cutlets pasty. A cooked paste binds them and keeps them light.
- Pike can be replaced with any lean white fish, such as pike-perch (zander), walleye, cod or hake Pike is sold mainly in Eastern and Central Europe.
- Crayfish: any whole crayfish, live or frozen; blend the shells in a sturdy blender or crush them with a rolling pin Hard shells can damage a weak blender.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
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