Crab Bisque

Yesterday I made crab bisque, I had no idea crab bisque was such a violent soup. Bet you didn't either, well let me explain the process...

First you have to tackle your ingredients, the crabs do not come cooked and red, these little guys are actually alive. Once you have decided to cook this lovely soup you have to gather your ingredients, seems pretty simple until you watch a dozen or so Cordon Bleu culinary students chasing after these crabs all over the kitchen. I never thought I would come to Paris and work so hard to catch crabs, lol.  I kid you not my crabs were trying to commit suicide by jumping off the counter, a few latched on to other ingredients, one had a death grip on my celery and sadly lost an appendage as a result. It is as if these crabs knew what their fate would be.

Now the crabs have to be cooked, having grown up in New England I have seen my fair share of seafood go into pots of boiling water, and as some of you know I have also saved by share of lobsters. However in order to rid the crabs of their impurities they must be blanched, blanched mean brought to a boil from cold water, so yes I put my lovey little crabs into a pot that slowly became the hot tub of death, probably best seeing as what comes next.

After the crabs have been brought to a boil, they are now that lovely red color we all know means dead for crustaceans. Now the crabs are cut in half and tossed in a saute pan with hot butter and pan fried. See the little guys are not fairing well, the crabs are then crushed using a mortar and pestle, primitive unh? Crushed crabs are then put back in the saute pan, add cognac, they could probably use liquor at this point, and then I flambe the little suckers, yes the French trust me with a bagful of knives, liquor, and fire all in the same room. Silly french people. Well the crabs are almost at the end of their painful journey, add some white wine, some fish stock, season and blend in blender. A few more steps and you have crab bisque, the crabs have been sufficiently pulverized.

Just to recap the violence, scare crabs enough they want to commit suicide, put them in hot tub of death, guillotine them in half, pan fry, crush barbarically, light on fire, and finally blend into a liquid.

I would like to take this moment to thank the crabs for going through all that to make a delicious soup.