For centuries, lobster bisque has been viewed as a dish of luxury and was the standard by which the best restaurants in both the U.S. and Europe were judged. Old-style lobster bisque can be very time consuming, with conventional recipes calling for over 25 ingredients and several hours of cooking. However, there are easier ways of making lobster bisque so the dish doesn’t have to be a chore.
Prepare 2 to 2 1/2 cups of fresh lobster meat, which requires two 1 1/2 pound lobsters; lobster from Maine or Canada are the tastiest. Most seafood markets will steam the lobsters for you, or cook the lobsters yourself by dropping the lobster head first into a large kettle of rapidly boiling water. Note that lobsters don’t have nerve endings, and can’t feel pain.
Shell the cooled lobsters and place the meat in a small bowl. The easiest way to shell lobster is to hold the lobster with one hand on the body and the other hand on the tail and snap the wrists to break off the tail. Insert the tip of a sharp knife under the bottom membrane of the tail at the wide end and work the knife up to the tip of the tail. Pull the meat out of the tail with a fork.
Break off both claws and the arms that are attached to the body and break the arms off the claws. Crack the arms and claws with a nut cracker. Insert the tip of a sharp knife into the crack and work the knife up the length of the arms and claws. Pull the meat out with a small fork. You can extract the meat from the legs in the same manner, but it’s not really worth the effort. Cut the lobster up into small bite size pieces.
Prepare the following ingredients:
3 tbsp. margarine or butter
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped medium red onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped carrot
16 ounce vegetable stock
1/8 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. red pepper
1 cup fat free milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
Melt the butter or margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat and sauté the mushrooms, onion, celery and carrots in the butter or margarine until tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the vegetable stock, salt and cayenne pepper to the saucepan and bring the mixture to a slow boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Divide the lobster meat in half and add one half of the meat to the pot. Remove the pot from the burner and allow the mixture to cool.
When cool, puree the mixture in a food processor and return the mixture to the pot. Stir in the milk, cream, white wine and the second half of the lobster meat. Simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, until the bisque has thickened, usually about 30 minutes.
