Crawfish Bisque

The cream in this soup really mutes the salt and it takes quite a bit to season it properly, as it should be slightly salty in flavor.  Tasting as you go is really important to get it right. The crawfish can be replaced with crab or lobster if you prefer.




½ cup of carrots
½ large sweet onion
½ lb of crawfish tails, cooked, shelled, and deveined
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt (or more to taste)
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon pepper
Juice of 2 lemons (about ¼ cup)
2 tablespoons of sparkling apple cider
2-3 cups heavy cream or half and half
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour

In a food processor, chop carrots, onion, and crawfish tail finely.
Heat a large heavy soup pot over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter until bubbly.
Add finely chopped carrots, onion, and crawfish to the heated butter, cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes.
Add the water, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and thyme.
Add lemon juice and sparkling cider.
Stir well and bring to a boil and allow to simmer.
In a small sauce pan, over medium low heat, bring cream or half and half to a slow boil and turn off.
In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.
Add flour and stir to create a roux.  Cook for a minute or two until a nutty smell develops.
Add heated cream slowly, stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.
Add cream mixture to simmering soup base and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Taste and re-season in needed.

Serves 4-6