The best langostino bisque recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a bisque creamy? ›

A bisque is a smooth, creamy French style of soup, traditionally made from crustaceans like lobster, crab or crayfish. It should include a stock made from the shells, a large amount of cream, and a thickening agent made from either finely-ground shells or rice.

Liquid — Bisque recipes aren't shy about liquids: cream or milk, broth, clam juice white wine, and often a bit of brandy are used to create a complex, fascinating flavor.

A bisque is a cream soup, but a cream soup isn't always a bisque. To be a bisque the soup has to be made with a shellfish stock and will often include pieces of shellfish. Quite simply, no shellfish, no bisque.

Bisque is traditionally thickened at the end of cooking with both cream and cooked rice. The latter, when blended in, adds a smooth, starchy thickness without introducing much flavor of its own. I've tried it, and it works well, but, once again, it requires an extra step—making rice on top of everything else.

When the dish came over to the United States, the culinary scene had an outsized influence on which proteins became synonymous with bisque. In American recipes, using a combination of lobster shells, bodies, claw meat, and tail meat provides the bisque its telltale taste and feel.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute.

A bisque is a thick cream soup that chefs purée and strain for a fine, smooth final result. Traditional bisque recipes feature seafood like lobster, crayfish, shrimp, or crab as the main ingredient—chefs typically grind the crustacean shells into a fine paste to thicken the mixture.

A bisque is a French style of soup that is made from crustaceans, such as lobster, crab, shrimp, and crayfish; their shells are used to make a stock and the meat is incorporated into the finished dish. So, in a way, calling the soup a "seafood bisque" is somewhat redundant.

Bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth (coulis) of crustaceans. It can be made from lobster, langoustine, crab, shrimp, or crayfish. The French bisque is one of the most popular seafood soups around the world.

Cream and sherry are the finishing ingredients for most bisque's.

What are the thickening agents used for bisque and chowder? ›

Authentic recipes ground the shells into a fine paste and use that to thicken the soup. More commonly now, bisques are thickened with rice, which can be pureed or strained out at the end of cooking.

Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used: purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream; cream soups may be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream.

Tomato – A fresh tomato will help add color and flavor to this soup. Tomato Paste – You will need tomato paste to add flavor, color, richness, and body to the bisque. Garlic – A few cloves go a long way to enhancing this flavor.

It's important to note that cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour. If you need to substitute cornstarch to thicken liquid in a recipe that calls for ¼ cup (four tablespoons) flour, you only need two tablespoons cornstarch.

Final answer: In traditional bisque, dark roux is not contained. Traditional bisque is a type of soup made from shellfish shells.

The bisque should be thick enough to just coat the back of a spoon but not so thick that it is clearly thickened with a slurry mixture and develops a weird gelatinous consistency. Instead of using a slurry or roux base I cook rice in the broth and blend it. It should be a silky and luxurious soup – not chunky.

What is the difference between tomato soup and Tomato Bisque? Tomato soup is usually made with either vegetable or chicken stock. Tomato bisque is made by adding cream or whole milk. The dairy is what makes it thicker and creamier, which gives it the defining traits of a bisque.

Bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth (coulis) of crustaceans. It can be made from lobster, langoustine, crab, shrimp, or crayfish.