Crayfish Soup with Cider Brandy

Name: Crayfish Soup with Cider Brandy
Yield: Serves 6-8
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: a pinch of saffron strands; a few sprigs of thyme; a couple of sprigs of tarragon; 1 bay leaf; 40 g butter; 3 tbsp plain flour; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 1 glass of white wine; the shells from a 1 kg freshly cooked crayfish, any excess tail meat reserved; the shells from a 1 kg freshly cooked crayfish, any excess tail meat reserved; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped; 1 small leek, trimmed, roughly chopped and washed; 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped; 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped; ½ tsp fennel seeds; salt and freshly ground white pepper; 1.5 litres fish stock; 100 ml double cream; salt and freshly ground white pepper; a few dashes of Somerset cider brandy

Preparation info

Serves
6-8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Hix Oyster & Chop House

By Mark Hix

Published 2010

About

The potential waste with crayfish, crabs, lobsters, and other crustaceans is pretty high if you don’t put their shells to good use. All of a sudden, expensive shellfish like these become good value once you have used the shells to make a few bowls of rich velvety soup.

I’ve added a few splashes of Julian Temperley’s somerset cider brandy at the end here to give the soup a bit of a West country kick.

Ingredients

Europe
United Kingdom
Starter
Pescatarian
Winter
Summer
Soup

Ingredients

Method