blue swimmer crab bisque

I have always wanted to make a bisque, a seafood soup heavily flavoured by the shells of crustaceans.

The word bisque sounds so uplifting and fresh, a perfect image for any seafood dish. It seems the etymology of bisque seems to come from the Bay of Biscay, that rather large bite of land missing between Spain and France. Makes sense, no?

Keen to give bisque a whirl, I was pretty excited when I was allocated the Spider Crab Bisque as part of the Murdoch Book's 365 Challenge to cook every recipe from Stéphane Reynaud's 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.

The original recipe uses spider crabs, only there weren’t any at my poissonnerie, so I opted for gorgeous blue swimmer crabs. Their azure shells are so photogenic.

The recipe is extremely easy to make and produces a perfect bisque. The extreme shellfish flavour really comes through, with chunks of crab meat adding texture to the velvety soup.

Only problem . . . it seems I don’t actually like bisque.

The moment the soup hit my lips I remembered, with utter disappointment, having eaten this soup in many fine French restaurants, and even at my mother’s table, and never having liked it!

After all the preparation and investment, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten this simple fact.

But don’t let my forgetfulness put you off: this recipe is perfect, so if you like bisque you’ll just love it!

Crab Bisque

Recipe from 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat by Stéphane Reynaud. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
6 fresh spider or blue swimmer crabs
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 french shallots (eschalots)
3 tablespoons olive oil
250ml (1 cup) white wine
2 very ripe tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste (concentrated puree)
200ml pouring (whipping) cream
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Poach the spider crabs in a large volume of water for 15 minutes.

2. Remove the meat from the shells (this will take a little time) and using a lobster pick, empty out each of the spider crab claws. Also get the roe found in the body cavity.

3. Rinse out the body shells of the crabs in water. They will be used, to our great delight, as tureens for the bisque. Ah, Brittany, the joys you bestow upon us.

4. Peel the potatoes and carrots, cut them into cubes.

5. Peel and slice the shallots.

6. Sauté three-quarters of the shallots with the carrots and potatoes in the olive oil, moisten with the white wine.

7. Add three-quarters of the crabmeat, the tomato and tomato paste, cook for 20 minutes.

8. Add the cream, then puree and season. Serve the bisque in the crab shells, (oh, it's so beautiful).

9. Add the rest of the crabmeat and a few shallot rings.

fisherman's rouille

There’s something romantic about any dish that’s described as a fisherman’s meal, and this is what drew me towards this cuttlefish and potato salad, which I cooked as part of Murdoch Book's 365 Challenge to cook every recipe from Stéphane Reynaud's 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.

Rouille is from the Carmargue area, in the south of France, and gets its name from its colour: rouille = rust.

The seafood was perfectly tender and the honey-sweet saffron was so flavoursome in the garlic-laden mayonnaise. Overall, a wonderful little side dish for a lunch on a warm afternoon.

Fisherman’s Rouille

Recipe from 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat by Stéphane Reynaud. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
1kg cuttlefish hoods or octopus, cleaned
3 onions
200ml olive oil
700ml white wine
800g potatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon mustard
150ml sunflower oil
Salt and pepper
1 pinch saffron threads

Method:
1. Cut the cuttlefish into wide strips.
2. Peel and slice the onions.
3. Sauté the onions with a little olive oil in a flameproof casserole dish
4. Add the cuttlefish and moisten with white wine.
5. Cook, covered, over a low heat for 1 hour then uncover to allow the wine to completely evaporate
6. Peel the potatoes, cut them in large cubes cook them for 15 minutes in boiling water.
7. Peel and chop the garlic, combine it with the egg yolk and mustard, add the sunflower oil to make a mayonnaise
8. Season then add the saffron threads.
9. Combine the potatoes and cuttlefish. Dress with the garlic mayonnaise in the dish.
10. No more vampires!


Here's a cute little extract from the book:

Garlic is a great friend of cooking but a great enemy of the mouth. It permeates the body like a colony of ants in a packet of sugar – you breathe it, you sweat it and it clings to your skin.


What can I do, I hear you say, so that the pleasure of the palate doesn’t turn you into a walking garlic clove?


1) Find a special friend who, like you, adores garlic, good conversation, maybe even more . . . it could become a true tale of Marseille, putainnn con!
2) Stop eating it. Unbearable.
3) Remove the digestible sprout inside, eat a coffe bean ro cardamom pod to offset some of the odours.
4) Stop talking for six hours, what’s more, that’ll give us a break!