How to make Prawn Bisque

A rich, deeply flavoured seafood soup that will be the highlight of any cool day on Lanzarote. The secret here is to get every ounce of flavour out of those tasty prawns. This soup is fantastic with warm garlic bread.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g uncooked, unshelled

prawns

• 1 litre good fish stock

• 75g butter

• Olive oil

• 1 carrot, finely chopped

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped

• 1 stick celery, finely chopped

• Two cloves of garlic, peeled

and chopped

• 100 mls white wine

• 75 gms short grain rice

• 3 small ripe tomatoes, chopped

• A bay leaf

• Two sprigs parsley

• Lemon juice

• 50 mls double cream

METHOD

1. Peel the prawns, reserving the heads and shells. It’s a fiddly job, but it’s worth it. Chop or mince the prawn flesh and refrigerate. In a frying pan or wok heat 30g butter and a good glug of olive oil over a high heat, then fry prawn heads and shells until they turn deep pink (they may also start popping). Add fish stock, bring to boil then simmer, covered for 30 minutes.

2. In a separate pan, fry onion, carrots, celery, and garlic for at least 10 minutes until soft. Add bay leaf, parsley, white wine and reduce for five minutes. Add tomatoes, rice and prawn stock, shells, heads and all, and cook for 20 minutes until rice is tender.

3. Remove bay leaf and blend the bisque in a blender or with a good stick blender until smooth.

4. Strain the soup through a fine sieve, pushing through with a wooden spoon and scraping from the bottom with a spatula. Discard the solids in the sieve.

5. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the double cream to the soup. Stir and heat to low simmer.

6. In a separate pan, heat butter until foaming and fry the chopped prawn flesh until pink.

7. Serve soup, spooning prawns into each bowl and garnishing with (chopped) parsley.

TIP

You can add salmon chunks, mussels, or any other meaty morsels of seafood to the bisque.

For a fine soup, pass the bisque through muslin after sieving.