Crab Bisque

I've been craving a good seafood bisque for a few weeks but it's a hassle to go out to eat now that Finley's here. So I set out to make seafood crab bisqueat home - who needs Eddie V's?! I went through a couple of different recipes and finally decided to throw caution to the wind and come up with my own recipe since I couldn't find one that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. It turned out excellent! I served it with my favorite salad (described in the previous post) and fresh sourdough bread for sopping up the remains of the soup. While the recipe is definitely not low-calorie, every now and then we all deserve a splurge!

Erin's Crab Bisque

7 T butter, divided

1/2 white onion, chopped

6 oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped

3/4 c white wine, divided

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 T flour

1/2 c chicken broth

2 c milk

2 T tomato paste

7 chives, snipped

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/2 lb crab meat, divided

chives to garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 T butter. Add onion, mushrooms and 1/4 c white wine. Saute for a few minutes until the onion starts to turn translucent. Add garlic and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 7 more minutes. Set aside.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt 4 T butter. Whisk in flour and cook for about a minute. Add in the chicken broth and stir well to combine. Cook 1 minute until thickened slightly. Stir in 1/2 c white wine. Stir to combine, cook 1 minute and let thicken. Add in milk, mushroom mixture, tomato paste and chives. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Stir well and simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup so it's velvety smooth and thick. (If you don't have an immersion blender, puree it in a blender in batches.) Stir in most of the crab but reserve a few tablespoons crab meat for garnish. Cook for about 5 minutes to heat crab thoroughly.

To serve, spoon into bowls. Top with a heaping tablespoon of crab meat and snipped chives.