Shrimp Bisque

Our friend, Stephanie, had crab night at her house a while ago and it was a huge hit. She boiled half of the crabs in an broth seasoned with old bay and the other half in cajun seasonings. Then she let the liquid boil down and sent a batch of delicious crab broth home with me! Yay!

Sticking with the seafood theme, I decided to make a shrimp bisque out of it. I can't give you an exact recipe since I have no idea how much of what spices she put into the broth. But then again, I rarely give measurements on this blog anyway since I tend not to measure things, so I guess it's not that different from usual. My typical method of cooking is to spin my spice rack around, grabbing whatever catches my eye, and tossing it in. I give it a taste and adjust accordingly. This usually results in something decent :)

Ingredients:
- Leftover crab broth
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- Tomato paste
- Rice
- Butter
- Flour
- Shrimp
- Soy milk (or cream)
- Water
- Paprika
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parsley

Directions:
- Melt some butter in a heavy pot and add the onions. Sweat them until they're soft.
- Melt more butter if necessary. Add flour and mix, cooking it down to get rid of the raw flour taste and make a roux.
- Toss in the chopped carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, rice, crab stock, water if necessary.
- Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer until the vegetables are soft.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper and paprika.
- Using a stick blender, blend the soup until everything is smooth and creamy.
- Mix in the cream (I used soy milk) and add the shrimp. Stir until the shrimp is cooked.
- Garnish with parsley and serve.