Rich Mussel Bisque with Shrimpmeat Garlic Toasts and Nasturtiums

Name: Rich Mussel Bisque with Shrimpmeat Garlic Toasts and Nasturtiums
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Europe
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons sour cream; 6 nasturtium flowers, stemmed, shredded; 4 cups fish stock, or a mixture of fish and clam; 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice; 4 slices white bread, cut ½-inch thick, cut into 4-inch rounds, dried out in oven; ½ cup fresh white breadcrumbs from 2-day-old bread(or bread dried in oven); 2 pounds mussels, washed, “bearded”; 8 large cooked fresh prawns; 1 bay leaf; ½ cup dry white wine(Sauvignon Blanc, for example); 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped; ⅛ teaspoon cardamom; Saltand freshly ground white pepper; 4 tablespoons butter; ½ teaspoon saffron powder mixed with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter; 6 shallots, peeled, finely chopped; 2 cups heavy cream; 1 sprig fresh thyme

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Jeremiah Tower Cooks

By Jeremiah Tower

Published 2002

About

Billi-Bi is a mussel soup made famous by Maxim’s in Paris, and I can never think of mussel soup without thinking of some very louche lunches there, when I always ordered this soup.

As with the Billi-Bi, in my restaurant we didn’t put the mussels in the soup, if only for profit reasons (getting money for the mussels twice). They were used at lunch in a creamed gratin (no cheese) or served as a snack sizzling in garlic oil. Sometimes we made a sandwich out of them with hot nan from ou

Ingredients

Europe
Pescatarian
Mediterranean
Soup

Ingredients

Method