Lobster Bisque

Name: Lobster Bisque
Yield: Serves Four to Five
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons brandy; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 100 g/4 oz butter; 2 tablespoons oil; 1 live lobster, weighing about 675 g/1½ lb; 1.15 litres/2 pints fish stock (made by boiling fish heads, skins, bones, etc. in water for 20 minutes, then straining); 1.15 litres/2 pints fish stock (made by boiling fish heads, skins, bones, etc. in water for 20 minutes, then straining); 1 bay leaf; small bunch of parsley; juice of ½ lemon; 1.15 litres/2 pints fish stock (made by boiling fish heads, skins, bones, etc. in water for 20 minutes, then straining); 1.15 litres/2 pints fish stock (made by boiling fish heads, skins, bones, etc. in water for 20 minutes, then straining); 1.15 litres/2 pints fish stock (made by boiling fish heads, skins, bones, etc. in water for 20 minutes, then straining); salt and white pepper cayenne; pinch of ground mace; 40 g/1½ oz flour; 3 tablespoons double cream; salt and white pepper cayenne

Preparation info

Serves
Four to Five

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Cooking for Friends

By Prue Leith

Published 1978

About

Very good lobster bisque can be bought, admittedly expensively, in cans. It only needs doctoring with added cream and a dash of sherry. Fresh lobster bisque costs even more, but is satisfying to make.

Ingredients

1 live lobster, weighing about 675 g/1½ lb
2 tablespoons

Starter
Fish course
Pescatarian

Method

Kill the lobster by pushing a sharp knife through its head (there is a cross on the shell, and you must pierce the middle of it). Split the lobster lengthways and remove the small stomach sac from the head and the nerve centre which is a thin dark thread running the length of the body. Discard these. Remove the coral, if there is any, and keep it. Remove the spongy lungs.

In a large fry