Prawn Bisque

Prawn Bisque

Every time I shell prawns I freeze the shells in little packets in the freezer. A lot of people do this until garbage night, forget and find a freezer full of them! When I have about half a kilo in weight of prawn shells, I make this prawn soup. It is very economical being able to get the prawn flavour without more prawns.

Serves 8
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 70 minutes

Ingredients

500g prawn shells and heads, cooked or raw
100g butter
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
1 sprig tarragon
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
4 large red tomatoes, chopped
1 litre white wine
1 slice white bread
2 tablespoons rice
1 litre cream
Salt and pepper to taste
8 cooked prawns (optional)

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan or stockpot and fry the prawn heads and shells until they are opaque but not brown. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer slowly for an hour until the vegetables are cooked. Give the mixture a good mashing with a potato masher to help extract the flavours.
2. Strain through a sieve leaving only a fairly dry residue.
3. Reheat and serve as it is, or put one shelled prawn per person in each bowl just for show. You don’t need it for flavour!

Lyndey’s Note: If you want to reduce the fat content you could use 650mls each of wine, cream and fish stock in place of the wine and cream.

Wine Match: This is such a full-bodied and rich soup it can handle a full-bodied chardonnay.

Recipe from Lyndey Milan. The Best Collection, (New Holland) 2009 and 2013

Watch Lyndey make Prawns in Cartoccio in 1 minute on YouTube, then use the shells for this soup.