This may look like a soup recipe, but it's arguably more of a conversation about the importance of rice.
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Mixed seafood bisque (in our case, solely shrimp due to availability) should be a chapter of or the introduction section into how rice has historically played a major part in the Black American South culinary lexicon, namely that in the Mississippi Delta. A real sticking point with traditionally Southern/Cajun/Creole cuisine is that so many contemporary passes of these recipes really miss the mark under historical scrutiny of using shelf stable ingredients in sweltering heat pre-AC. Are you really storing heavy cream or butter in that climate? Even the use of finely-milled flours under the context of 19th Century America feels anachronistic when you make these dishes. Enslaved Africans were a) generally not using wheat in many forms due to subjugation, resorting more to the small cordoned off plots of land in slave quarters to grow rice and corn, and b) rice cultivars followed the Atlantic slave trade as many people were taken from the rice coast of Africa [1], [2], hence rice planting itself as a cornerstone of nutrition in the South. Couple this with the heavy French presence in the region, and you have bisque and bisque-style soups appearing, thickened with generally shelf stable (and low–prep overhead unlike milling wheat flour for a roux) rice that had been fully gelatinized and broken down.
I think you see lobster bisque as the poster child here, and not entirely without reason - it’s hard to argue that lobster isn’t more rich and succulent than your standard shrimp fare. Plus, when you tend to load bisques up with heavy cream in contemporary recipes, that argument becomes nigh impossible to trounce. Shrimp, however, is vastly more available and economical for a wider range of home cooks - it wasn’t always like this…Nikki Jenkins [@nikki.mov on TikTok, @nikjenkinss on IG] has a succinct breakdown of how lobster was historically seen as a complete trash food, left only for, you guessed it, enslaved Africans who took these ‘scraps’ and utilized every aspect. From making a seafood stock or coulis, and pairing it with the above prevalence of rice, and New World French influences of mirepoix & Trinity, poof, out comes this soup. In my recipe, I’ve obviously opted to skip the dairy (heavy cream) entirely - once you see the final product at the end of the accompanying video for the recipe, you’ll see why. I started using a standard mirepoix, omitting the bell pepper that you’d normally see in Trinity used for Cajun/Creole/Southern cooking, just out of taste preferences, but feel free to add that back in - it’s arguably a little extra fiber too. I’m also demanding that you make a shrimp stock here, this is entirely nonnegotiable: a) shrimp stock comes together extremely quickly (see ATK/Dan Souza’s recent video on shrimp stock potency) & b) you’ll have some vegetable scraps already, so you might as well put those to use instead of just tossing them in the trash. My recipe also adds a little extra oomph to the seafood-y, briny, umami rich stock with the a sheet of dried kombu - I find that steeping this seaweed is pretty synergistic with the amount of time that a shrimp stock comes together, generally you don’t want to over-extract kombu as it can get bitter and astringent, and if you watched Dan’s video above, you’d know that shrimp stock tends to be less shrimpy after X amount of time anyway. Otherwise, nothing about the recipe is outlandish. Sweat aromatics, add spices, rice, and stock, cook for a half hour, blend it all up and serve. I have you make some quick fried shallots as a crispy topping, that extra little hit of texture and punch of the shallot helps cut the rich bisque. Serve with bread. Hardware:
Serving Suggestions:
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Shopping List:
Shopping List (stock):
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Prep:
Rough chop the vegetables and aromatics needed for the stock, break kombu sheet to fit to your pot, and set aside.
Prep your mirepoix. The actual size doesn't matter a ton here since the soup will be blended, so a regular dice will work. Same with the garlic - chop it up semi-thin. Set these aside.
Thinly slice your shallots crosswise, set aside.
Peel and devein your shrimp, reserving the shells in a separate bowl (bonus points if you also save the head(s)).
If you're serving this with croutons, cube up some bread and coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toast these off in your oven until your desired crispiness. Hell, you could also just serve this soup with bread for dipping.
The Business:
Start with your shrimp stock. Add a small pat of butter into your preheated Dutch Oven over medium-low-ish heat, and fry your reserved shrimp shells until they noticeably turn pink/orange. You'll also notice the smell - should be very obviously seafood. Once those have turned a little more opaque and gained color, toss in the remainder of the stock ingredients, give it a stir, and bring to a gentle boil. When it starts to foam up, skim as much of the scum and foam off as you care to - we're not going for a hyper-clear consommé, but the cleaner your stock is, the better. Let this simmer for 10-15 minutes, and take it off the heat, strain well, and reserve for later, we'll need most of the 2 quarts for the soup. Clean the Dutch oven (or at least just wipe out any of the large chunks), and return that to a medium heat.
Over medium-low heat, heat the neutral oil used in frying the shallots. I had leftover shallot oil from a previous batch that I had made, feel free to use that in lieu of straight virgin canola oil. Once the oil is heated to ~300 deg F, drop in the shallots and fry until just starting to turn golden brown (4-5 minutes), and thoroughly drain. I tend to pull these a little early because they do continue cooking once off the heat and are on the sensitive side of going from Brown to Burned. Drain the oil off into a heat-safe container, and clean out the pan.
While the shallots are frying, start sweating down your mirepoix/Trinity aromatics in a little more butter in the Dutch Oven. Add some salt to help draw out latent moisture to regulate temperature - you're not looking for a saute here. Once those are softened a little, add in your garlic, spices, tomato paste, and raw rice. Cook out any tinny flavors in the tomato paste (~1 minute), and then add your reserved shrimp stock. Give this a healthy stir to get everything off the bottom, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is easily smashed against the side of the pot with no resistance. Note: you WANT it to be overcooked here or it won't blend smooth.
While the soup base itself is simmering, take that small saute pan over low heat, and add the remaining butter that you have portioned out. Once that has melted and is sufficiently melted, optionally toss in a minced clove of garlic, some parsley, and some red chili flakes and let that steep in the hot butter. Add your peeled shrimp, salt and pepper these to taste, and cook over low heat until just starting to turn opaque and orange on one side. Flip these and cook to 90% - we essentially want to butter poach these without too much color or texture, you want the meat to be very rich and succulent and that means not cooking the hell out of it. Remove the shrimp from the pan, and chop into fairly large chunks (however large you feel like, it's your life after all). Set these aside.
Once the rice in the bisque base is nice and gelatinized and overcooked, carefully spoon that into a high powered blender (Note: a stick blender will PROBABLY work here, but in my experience it just takes more time to get to the ultra-creamy state, your mileage may vary). Thoroughly blend this, doing so in batches as per your particular blender capacity. If you're feeling extra rich, you can drizzle some of that shrimpy-garlic butter in here as well. Return to the heat if you feel like it has cooled down enough, or you can essentially immediately serve the bisque with your preferred garnishes (shallots, chives, parsley, croutons, bread on the side).
Enjoy!
Rough chop the vegetables and aromatics needed for the stock, break kombu sheet to fit to your pot, and set aside.
Prep your mirepoix. The actual size doesn't matter a ton here since the soup will be blended, so a regular dice will work. Same with the garlic - chop it up semi-thin. Set these aside.
Thinly slice your shallots crosswise, set aside.
Peel and devein your shrimp, reserving the shells in a separate bowl (bonus points if you also save the head(s)).
If you're serving this with croutons, cube up some bread and coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toast these off in your oven until your desired crispiness. Hell, you could also just serve this soup with bread for dipping.
The Business:
Start with your shrimp stock. Add a small pat of butter into your preheated Dutch Oven over medium-low-ish heat, and fry your reserved shrimp shells until they noticeably turn pink/orange. You'll also notice the smell - should be very obviously seafood. Once those have turned a little more opaque and gained color, toss in the remainder of the stock ingredients, give it a stir, and bring to a gentle boil. When it starts to foam up, skim as much of the scum and foam off as you care to - we're not going for a hyper-clear consommé, but the cleaner your stock is, the better. Let this simmer for 10-15 minutes, and take it off the heat, strain well, and reserve for later, we'll need most of the 2 quarts for the soup. Clean the Dutch oven (or at least just wipe out any of the large chunks), and return that to a medium heat.
Over medium-low heat, heat the neutral oil used in frying the shallots. I had leftover shallot oil from a previous batch that I had made, feel free to use that in lieu of straight virgin canola oil. Once the oil is heated to ~300 deg F, drop in the shallots and fry until just starting to turn golden brown (4-5 minutes), and thoroughly drain. I tend to pull these a little early because they do continue cooking once off the heat and are on the sensitive side of going from Brown to Burned. Drain the oil off into a heat-safe container, and clean out the pan.
While the shallots are frying, start sweating down your mirepoix/Trinity aromatics in a little more butter in the Dutch Oven. Add some salt to help draw out latent moisture to regulate temperature - you're not looking for a saute here. Once those are softened a little, add in your garlic, spices, tomato paste, and raw rice. Cook out any tinny flavors in the tomato paste (~1 minute), and then add your reserved shrimp stock. Give this a healthy stir to get everything off the bottom, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is easily smashed against the side of the pot with no resistance. Note: you WANT it to be overcooked here or it won't blend smooth.
While the soup base itself is simmering, take that small saute pan over low heat, and add the remaining butter that you have portioned out. Once that has melted and is sufficiently melted, optionally toss in a minced clove of garlic, some parsley, and some red chili flakes and let that steep in the hot butter. Add your peeled shrimp, salt and pepper these to taste, and cook over low heat until just starting to turn opaque and orange on one side. Flip these and cook to 90% - we essentially want to butter poach these without too much color or texture, you want the meat to be very rich and succulent and that means not cooking the hell out of it. Remove the shrimp from the pan, and chop into fairly large chunks (however large you feel like, it's your life after all). Set these aside.
Once the rice in the bisque base is nice and gelatinized and overcooked, carefully spoon that into a high powered blender (Note: a stick blender will PROBABLY work here, but in my experience it just takes more time to get to the ultra-creamy state, your mileage may vary). Thoroughly blend this, doing so in batches as per your particular blender capacity. If you're feeling extra rich, you can drizzle some of that shrimpy-garlic butter in here as well. Return to the heat if you feel like it has cooled down enough, or you can essentially immediately serve the bisque with your preferred garnishes (shallots, chives, parsley, croutons, bread on the side).
Enjoy!
Aromatics to supplement shrimp stock (carrots, onion scraps, celery, white and black peppercorns, bay leaf) - not pictured: kombu that I decided to add last minute and didn't photograph
Setup and prep for shrimp stock (note existence of kombu and some stray parsley stems I had laying around)
Finished stock (note recipe above, this is after roughly 10 minutes of simmering - shrimp stock comes together extremely fast)