The Dunican sisters were anti-grocery shopping today. I’m not sure what Regina ended up finding in her pantry and freezer to turn into dinner, but I had quite a coup, inspired by National Seafood Bisque Day, I combined the recipe the punchbowl.com page recommended with some inspiration from Ina Garten’s Shrimp Bisque (because I had all the ingredients on hand).This recipe is truly a last-minute preparation. I made the whole thing from frozen shrimp to eating the piping hot bowl with a piece of crusty bread in 30 minutes. If you use frozen shrimp, skip the sautéing step, but the olive oil does add some depth of flavor to your bisque. If you don’t have white wine, you can substitute seafood stock or even water, but add a splash (less than ¼ cup of brandy, vermouth, or dry sherry at the end). Remember to take the center out of the blender when blending hot liquids; hot liquids tend to cause the blender to “explode” and are quite dangerous, so place a folded dish towel over the hole in the blender top to let the steam escape, and keep your hand on it so the top and towel stay in place.
Truly last-minute “National Seafood Bisque Day” shrimp bisque
1 T olive oilIf shrimp is thawed, sauté shrimp, shells and all, in olive oil; add thyme, pepper, and salt. Simmer shrimp in wine just until cooked (pink), overcooking shrimp will cause it to be tough. Pull shrimp from wine and chill in refrigerator until cool enough to handle. In the meantime, add cream to wine and continue simmering over low heat.
1 lb shrimp, in shells, frozen is fine
1 bottle white wine
1 qt light cream
¼ t thyme leaves
1 pinch black pepper
1 pinch kosher salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Once shrimp is cool enough, peel shrimp and place in blender; reserve 12 shrimp, peeled, with tails intact. Add liquid so blender is half full. With center of blender top out of hole, place folded dish cloth over hole. Keeping your hand on dish cloth, pulse blender until shrimp is chopped fine. Return to pot to warm over low heat. Stir in cayenne pepper. Serve immediately with two whole shrimp as garnish.
I never knew that tip about the blender top, but have had tomatoe sauce explode when blending.
ReplyDeleteI made Mom's clam chowder.
ReplyDeleteI improvised a little because I didn't have everything, but since Holland told me it was a little less creamy than usual, I did have George stop for a container of heavy cream to add to the adults version. Jim came and spent the night last night, so I added some bacon wrapped bread sticks and french bread, and of course, a bottle (or 2) of red wine.