It’s Soup Week – I feel warmer already. Nothing says winter & comfort better than soup, and this week 14 food bloggers joined mittens to warm up your week. Actually, I should say 15 cooks because this recipe is my husband’s. Seriously… it’s all him. We don’t call him The Complete Package for nothing, folks. He not only cooks, he is the Boss of Bisque. And this bisque is boss – it’s rich, it’s plush (if you can call a soup such a thing) and it’s heavenly. I swear it.
PS – Want to impress friends & family or blow their minds with a gourmet-quality shee-shee-foo-foo seafood soup? Well, this is the one. Not only is it ‘scrape the bowl’ fabulous, it’s fabulously easy to make. {our little secret}
The Complete Package’s Shrimp Bisque
3 tablespoons of good quality olive oil
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, shelled & deveined (save the shells)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 large onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup dry white wine (TCP uses pinot grigio)
2 cups cooked white rice (great way to use leftover rice!)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3 cubes of chicken bullion (or 1 1/2 tablespoons of granules)
1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups heavy cream
In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp shells and cook until pink, stirring often to keep them from burning. Remove the shells with a slotted spoon and discard them, leaving all the shrimp-flavored oil in the pot (this creates a more flavorful base for your soup, so please don’t skip this step).
Add the peeled, deveined shrimp to the hot oil and cook, stirring often, until they turn pink and curl up (about 3 minutes). Remove them from the oil with your slotted spoon and place them in a bowl; cover and set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium; add the butter, onion, carrot and celery to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until the veggies are tender. Add the water, white wine, cooked rice, bay leaf, salt, cayenne pepper and chicken bullion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
Turn off the stove and then remove the bay leaf from the soup. Add the can of diced tomatoes, juice included, and the cooked shrimp, stirring to combine. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until mostly smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can do this in your blender. Just work carefully and in small batches; be sure to cover the lid of your blender with a kitchen towel to prevent spatters. Be careful; the mixture will be hot!
Once blended, return the soup to the pot; stir in the cream and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Once it’s thoroughly heated, it’s ready to serve.
The Complete Package insists on serving this with hot buttered sourdough bread. And, as usual, he’s right. But please don’t tell him I said so.
Don’t forget to visit the other ‘souper’ Soup Week bloggers:
MONDAY:
Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Bread Bowls @ Comfortably Domestic
Hearty Vegetable Mexican Soup & Jalapeno Cornbread @ The Girly Girl Cooks
3 Bean & Spinach Soup @ The Hill Country Cook
TUESDAY:
Garbage Soup @ Munching in the Mitten
Gnocchi Pesto Soup @ La Petite Pancake
WEDNESDAY:
40 Clove Garlic Chicken Soup with Parmesan Croutons @ Country Cleaver
Sunchoke Soup with Gorgonzola & Honey Crostini @ Climbing Grier Mountain
THURSDAY:
Coconut Curry with a lot of Aloha @ The Grommom
Beef Bourguignon @ Bakeaholic Mama
FRIDAY:
Eat Live Run’s White Chicken Chili @ Tenaciously Yours
Arizona Mountain Soup with Cornbread @ Decadent Philistines
SATURDAY:
‘Fungus Among Us’ Mushroom Soup @ Kvetchin’ Kitchen
Pink Prosecco Soup – a dessert soup From My Sweet Heart
Nothing like a little dessert soup to wrap up Soup Week.
Great job, ladies! As always, it’s an honor to cook with you. And TCP.
Inside NanaBread's Head 
That TCP…he continually puts the average man to shame. Well done! This may sound weird, but I’m going to try this soup with chicken. Shellfish & I don’t get along, but that bisque base looks too good to base up. I’ll come back with a full report.
Hmm… chicken would be interesting. I’m guessing you would start with ground chicken so you’re not trying to chop up a chicken breast with an immersion blender. (I have to chuckle just thinking about it.) Ham might also be a good substitute. Can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
Oh, definitely ground chicken or turkey. I’m so crazy as to try to run chicken through my immersion blender. ;) I was thinking grilled chicken for the garnish on top.
I’d might even consider grilled chicken for the soup, too! It would add great flavor. You could just chop it into little pieces instead of hitting it with the immersion blender. It would have a different texture, but I’ll bet it would taste great. Can’t wait to see if this works out. Food experimentation at its finest.
Jeanne! This looks absolutely fabulous! Your pictures are stunning. And yes…this beautiful soup IS plush…and I’m now adding that word to my food terminology to describe anything that is so perfectly luscious! And that hot buttered sourdough bread? Yeah….he might have been on to something there. ; – }
Hot buttered sourdough goes with everything, at least in my book. In this case, that extra twang of sourdough really compliments the creamy texture of the bisque. He’s a smart man. I just don’t like to tell him too often, or he’ll start to think he’s smarter than me. Ha!
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YUMMM!!! It’s like NoLa is calling me home!!! Sounds yummy!
It really is a little bit of New Orleans in a bowl. It’s the southern comfort food of soups, for sure. Especially if you’re a shrimp lover.
YUM. I’m sending my husband over for TCP cooking lessons ASAP! Do you think you could you substitute chicken broth for the water/bouillon cubes? Bouillon cubes…confuse me….
Yes, Sarah. I think you could substitute chicken broth for the water in the recipe. It won’t give you the concentrated flavor of bullion, but it would still work. I think the key to overcoming your bullion fear is to stay away from cubes and use the powdered or granules. They’re easier to work with and don’t get dried into little bricks when they’ve sat too long in your pantry. I particularly like the Mecci brand of concentrated powdered chicken bullion. It’s mighty tasty. Goya & Knorr also make good varieties. Trrryyyy it. You’ll liiiikke it.
Mmmmmm…. shrimp bisque….
I definitely need to try this, although I’ll probably use some of the 867981276y491038758302 cups of shellfish stock I recently made.
HRH looked at the picture and said “Look at the pretty bacon!” I told her that it was actually a shrimp; she wasn’t impressed, and now I think she may be on to something…. mmmmm…bacon…..
I promise I won’t tell TCP he was right about the bread. We can’t let them have too much.
You know me…. I’ll put bacon on anything. I think HRH is on to something, too. Out of the mouths of babes….
This looks like a wonderful bowl of *stick-to-your-ribs-warm-and-hearty-goodness*
It is! And it really is delicious. Made it for friends, and some went back for thirds. That’s always a good sign.
Jeanne, How wonderful to see more of TCP’s work here, and this dish delivers…I can tell by his ingredient choices―and the bread!
Thanks, Brooks. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the support! He’s an amazing cook, and this is his best soup. It’s hard to describe how fabulous it truly is; it has to be tasted to be believed. Hope you’ll get a chance to try it. -j
This looks amazing. I’ve never made a shrimp bisque before–but i can tell I would LOVE it. All the flavors I love. Mmmm. We have fresh shrimp here on the north shore too–so now I know what to do next! ;)
You have to try it! With your access to fresh shrimp in Hawaii, it’s a must!
This looks like the perfect accompaniment to our snowy cold day — that arrived today after a balmy warm week. I feel warmer just thinking about it too!
Yum!
It’s so so good. I hope you’ll try it. If you do, let me know how you liked it, Liz! We’re having a temporary cool front in Houston, and I’m loving it. It was 80 yesterday and 32 this morning. So bizarre. But we don’t get much cold weather this far south, so I’m enjoying every second of it!
I’ll let you know. Both the girls adore shrimp so I anticipate this will be a popular one here.
PS – I think you’re enjoying the cold weather for both of us. Been out to shovel snow three times today so I’ve had enough! :)