Crab soup

Name: Crab soup
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 tbsp tomato puree; 1 bay leaf; 40 g (1½ oz) butter; 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped; ½ tsp fennel seeds; few thyme sprigs; 1 small leek, trimmed, chopped and rinsed; 1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped; 1 kg (2¼ lb) prepared whole crab; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; sea salt and white pepper; 1.5 litres (2½ pints) fish stock; 100 ml (3½ fl oz) double cream; 3 tbsp flour; 1 glass of dry white wine

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

British Food

By Mark Hix

Published 2005

About

This soup acquires its flavour from the shells of the crab, so you can use most of the meat for a salad or sandwich. If you can’t get whole crabs, use cooked or raw prawns in shells with heads instead.

Ingredients

1 kg (2¼ lb) prepared whole crab
1 tbsp vege

Europe
United Kingdom
Fish course
Pescatarian
Soup

Method

Set the crabmeat to one side. With a heavy chopping knife or cleaver, break the body and leg shells up into small pieces. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan and fry the crab shells over a high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring every so often until they begin to colour.
Add the onion, leek, garlic, fennel seeds, thyme and bay leaf, and cook for anothe