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Diet Shrimp Bisque

A light shrimp bisque made with shrimp shells, vegetables, wine, and finished with cornstarch and powdered milk.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 29 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and tarragon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 30 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

4 soup plates
Time1 hour

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • for the bisque

Directions

Prepare the shells

  1. Separate the tail from the shrimp and remove the meat, reserving all shells, claws, heads and so forth. If you wish, devein the tails, then cover and refrigerate.

  2. Coarsely chop the heads and shells, reserving 4 heads for decoration, if you have them.

Make the stock

  1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over moderate heat, then add the shrimp shells and cook them, stirring slowly but continuously for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the vegetables and tomato puree and cook another 5 minutes, stirring.

  3. Add the wine and bring to the boil for 30 seconds, scraping the bottom to dissolve any coagulated juices.

  4. Add the water, bouillon cube, saffron and herb bouquet.

  5. Return to a simmer and cook, covered, for 1 hour.

  6. Pour the stock through a fine strainer into a bowl, pressing down on the vegetables and shrimp shells with a soup ladle to extract all of the liquid. (For a finer result, strain again through cheesecloth.)

  7. Return the stock to the boil.

  8. Moisten the cornstarch in a little cold water, then add it to the saucepan and boil for 4 minutes.

  9. Taste for salt and pepper. (The recipe can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated.)

Finish and serve

  1. Bring the stock to a simmer.

  2. Add the shrimp tails and let them cook a bare 2 minutes (for small or medium), or 3 minutes for extra large.

  3. Remove immediately with a slotted spoon and divide them among 4 heated soup plates.

  4. Pour the stock into a blender, add the powdered milk and cognac, and blend until smooth and homogeneous.

  5. Pour immediately into the soup plates over the shrimp tails.

  6. Garnish each dish with an equal amount of the herbs and a shrimp head (optional).

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Saffron + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Leek + shallottop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Celery + tarragontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Shallot + tarragontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shrimp shells
Release flavour and colour into the stock during the initial sauté and long simmer.
Cornstarch
Thickens the stock so the bisque has body and a smooth, coating texture.
Non-fat powdered milk
Adds creaminess and body to the blended bisque without fat.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and depth, and helps lift cooked juices from the pan bottom.
Leek
Contributes mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock base.
Tomato puree
Adds acidity, body and a deeper colour to the stock.

The step that matters

Cooking the shrimp tails briefly. Shrimp turn rubbery when overcooked, and they keep cooking in the hot stock, so they should be removed immediately at the stated time.

Flavor stand-ins for the safflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, lobster, olive, leek, carrot, celery, shallot):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Safflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, lobster, olive, leek, carrot, celery, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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