Lobster Bisque Recipe (Bisque de Homard)

This classic shellfish recipe makes enough bisque for 6-8.

Ingredients

1 small lobster, live or ready-cooked
1 carrot
1 small onion
2 tomatoes
a bouquet garni
1/4 pint white wine
1 glass brandy
3 pints fish or chicken stock
2 oz rice (or more if necessary - see the note above)
4 oz cream
4 oz butter
chopped parsley
a dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

Preparation

If your lobster is live, cut it in pieces as follows: first cut the head from the body (this kills the lobster), then crack the large claws and cut the body into segments across the joints.

Split the head down the middle; remove the intestine and the sack of grit from the head. Remove the coral and the tomalley and put to the side.

(If you balk at killing the lobster like this, read the notes on dispatching the lobster in a much more humane manner here).

Chop the carrot and the onion and cook in the pan, in half the butter, until golden. Meanwhile chop the tomatoes.

Add the lobster pieces to the pan and cook until bright red, which should take about 5 minutes.

Pour over the wine, turn up the heat and simmer until it halves in quantity; add the tomatoes and stir around for a few seconds. Then add enough stock to cover the lobster; simmer for 5 minutes.

Take out the pieces of lobster and when cool enough to handle. Remove the lobster meat from the shells and put aside.

Put the shells, including the claws from which you have extracted the meat, back into the pan with the stock and the vegetables. Add the rest of the stock, the bouquet garni and the rice.

Cook for about 20 minutes or until the rice is ready, then turn off the heat and take out the lobster shells and the bouquet garni.

Liquidize everything that is left in the pan, plus the lobster meat (you can save a few pieces as a garnish if you like). Taste for seasoning, adding salt, pepper and cayenne; stir in the cream and brandy.

Mix the reserved coral and tomalley with the remaining butter. When you're ready to serve, reheat the soup, remove from the heat and stir in the butter mixture.

Garnish with parsley and any pieces of lobster meat you reserved.

(If you're using ready-cooked lobster, cook the vegetables as above, meanwhile take the meat out of the lobster shells, and boil the shells with the stock proceeding exactly as above.)

Chef's Tip

Instead of using an entire lobster and starting from scratch, you can also use the shells from lobster cooked for a different dish.

If you're planning to do this, make sure you save a little lobster meat from the original meal to garnish the bisque, and you'll probably also need to increase the quantity of rice a little to bulk it out.