National Seafood Bisque Day October 19

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[heterosupremacist]

National Seafood Bisque Day is observed annually on October 19. Seafood lovers celebrate by enjoying a bowl of tasty soup made from the catch of the day!

Seafood bisque is a smooth, creamy and highly-seasoned soup of French origin. Based on a strained broth of crustaceans, it is made from lobster, crab, shrimp or crayfish.

The name “Bisque” is likely derived from Biscay, as in Bay of Biscay. However, the crustaceans are certainly bis cuites, meaning “twice cooked”, as they are first sauteed lightly in their shells, then simmered in wine or cognac and aromatic herbs before being strained.

[heterosupremacist]

recipes at link

[Gay State Conservative]

Although I've lived my entire life (except for time in the Armed Forces) within 20 miles of the Atlantic I've never been a seafood fan.Give me a prime rib,sirloin or even a nice piece of chicken any day.Maybebe I should have grown up in Kansas City.

[NEMDF]

Seafood bisque sounds amazing today. We are having a food day (pot-luck) at work, so there will be plenty. I had some canned (Campbell’s chunk) clam chowder over the weekend, which certainly got the cat’s attention. He lapped up a couple tablespoons I put out for him.

I have lived my entire life about 1,500 miles from the ocean, and would love more chances for lobster, crab, and clams, which are fresh and affordable.

[Liz]

ELEGANT LOBSTER BISQUE

Cookbook author, Alex Hitz's, Southern Christmas menu: Champagne, Cheese Straws, and Smoked Salmon, followed by Lobster Bisque, the perfect Roast Tenderloin of Beef with Sauce Soubise (French onion-laden sauce), and Creamed Spinach with red peppers, with Charlotte Russe for dessert.

Every place would have a handwritten card — and a Christmas cracker from England for us to pull and pop...and a very special red wine.

METHOD 1. Melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large (at least 2-quart) saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, 8 to 9 minutes.

2. In another saucepan over medium heat, warm the chicken stock and milk. Add 1¼ teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon white pepper, and continue heating until the mixture is scalding.

3. Add the flour to the onion mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour is cooked thoroughly but not browned, about 2 minutes. The mixture should be fairly stiff.

4. Add the scalding stock mixture to the onion mixture. Whisk vigorously to break up any lumps.

5. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then turn off the heat. (The soup base will have thickened to an appropriate consistency after boiling.) Stir in the cream and set the soup base aside. >{? 6. In a large, heavy skillet, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Season the lobster with the remaining ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon white pepper.

When the butter's foaming subsides, add the lobster meat to the pan. Sauté for about 1 minute, making sure the lobster is fully coated with butter. (All this happens fairly quickly: Be careful not to overcook the lobster.)

Add ¼ cup cognac and sauté for 1 minute more. Remove from the heat, drain, and reserve the lobster and the pan juices separately.

7. Return the soup base to medium-low heat and add the remaining 6 tablespoons cognac, the lemon juice, garlic, tomato paste, tarragon, and nutmeg. Whisk to combine the ingredients, and then add the reserved lobster pan juices. Simmer the bisque, whisking occasionally, until fully heated through.

8. When you are ready to serve, add the sautéed lobster meat to the bisque and serve immediately. Do not let the lobster continue cooking, or it will become rubbery and tasteless.

Ingredients 8 tablespoons butter, divided 1 cup diced onion 3½ cups very rich chicken stock 3½ cups milk 2 teaspoons salt, divided 1 teaspoon white pepper, divided ¼ cup flour 1 cup heavy cream 2 lbs. lobster meat (can be claw, tail, body, or fin) 10 tablespoons cognac, divided 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 cloves garlic, minced 7 tablespoons tomato paste 1 tablespoon dried tarragon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg Directions

[Gay State Conservative]

I have lived my entire life about 1,500 miles from the ocean, and would love more chances for lobster, crab, and clams, which are fresh and affordable.

Where I live it's common to be served a lobster in a seafood restaurant that 7 hours earlier was in the Atlantic...the Gulf of Maine to be specific.Also,when I was a kid there was a family across the street who were Catholic and,therefore,couldn't eat meat on Friday.If you visited their house on Friday afternoon (as I often did) you could see live lobsters crawling around the kitchen floor just waiting to be dropped into boiling water.Of course having brains the size of a pea they couldn't understand how they wound up on the floor of a New England kitchen! ;-)

[NEMDF]

Over many years, I used to travel to MA for business with some frequency. One year, they took us to a place in southern NH, up in some hills with a beautiful view. All the lobster we could eat. YUM. Another trip was to Hyannisport (Dunfey’s, in 1983), and had crab and lots of steamed clams there.

[Twotone]

You may be interested in this article.

[Jamestown1630]

Thanks. The recipe Liz posted looks wonderful.

I remembered reading somewhere that lobster was once so plentiful on the NE coast that certain classes of people who were fed it routinely got sick of it and protested; I found this:

“Dirt-cheap because they were so copious, lobsters were routinely fed to prisoners, apprentices, slaves and children during the colonial era and beyond. In Massachusetts, some servants allegedly sought to avoid lobster-heavy diets by including stipulations in their contracts that they would only be served the shellfish twice a week.”

http://www.history.com/news/a-taste-of-lobster-history

[Liz]

Good research.

[Twotone]

Oh that is FUNNY! I guess any food can get tedious after a while. But lobster?! I’d like to test that idea. ;-)

[Jamestown1630]

Actually, if I had my choice I’d eat crab or shrimp instead; but it does highlight how plentiful they were, and how expensive they are now.

(I remember being impressed with James Michener’s book ‘Chesapeake’, where he told the astounding number of people that the Cheaspeake Bay of Early American times could feed...)