Spicy Crab Bisque

Friendships that span decades are special and should be cherished. I have quite a few such friendships. One of them traces it's roots back to Wooddale Elementary School (Edina) in the early 1960's.  As prepubescents, Jeff Pinkham and I bonded over a mutual love of music and playing the guitar. Now, as septuagenarians, our common bond is cooking.

We text often, sharing food questions, ideas and recipes. We are both obsessed with The New York Times for their food writing and spectacular recipes. We often modify those recipes to meet the flavors and tastes preferred by the two of us and our wives. A few weeks ago Jeff found a crab bisque recipe by Tanya Holland in Food and Wine magazine. He tried it....shared it with me....and I am here to tell you it is an all-time f*cking  great recipe. An absolute keeper. We will both be making this part of our regular dinner rotation.

Tanya's recipe was created to serve twelve people in small cups to be enjoyed between the appetizer and  main courses. Jeff did a brilliant job of modifying the recipe to work as an entree soup for two. He and his wife Kathy like strong flavor profiles, so he left the spice level at what was called for twelve soup  servings, but halved everything else to make two entree servings.

A couple of notes. For heat, the recipe called for Tabasco. If you are a heat fan, use that or Sriracha. I like mine not quite as spicy, so I used Cholula. Any of those three will taste great while still preserving the smokiness gifted from the paprika, cayenne pepper, cloves, mace and nutmeg. For the crab, I had some smaller Alaskan King crab legs leftover in my freezer...so I used that to save a trip to Costco. For Jeff's soup. he used Costco's Fresh Lump Crab....sold in a 1-pound container back in the refrigerated section (near the meat department).

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 small white onion (or 1/2 medium onion), finely chopped 

3 celery ribs, finely chopped

3 scallions, finely sliced

2 bay leaves

2-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

2-1/2 cups chicken broth

1 head of garlic, roasted, peeled and cloves mashed*

1-1/2 cups whole milk

1 tablespoon dry sherry or vermouth

1/2 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1/4 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground mace

1 pinch grated nutmeg

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon of Tabasco, Sriracha or Cholula

1 pound lump crab meat

Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

Oyster crackers for serving

*(Cut garlic head in half along the equator. Drizzle exposed cloves with olive oil. Wrap with foil and cook in a 400º oven for 40 minutes. Take out of oven and remove foil and let cool for 5 minutes. Squeeze cloves onto a plate and mash with a fork.)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Add the onion, celery, scallions and bay leaves and cook over moderate heat until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the broth is thickened and the vegetables are very tender, 15 minutes.

2. Add the roasted garlic and milk; bring to a simmer. Stir in the sherry, ketchup, tomato paste, paprika, cayenne, cloves, mace, nutmeg, cream and Tabasco and bring to a simmer. Then add the crab; simmer until hot. Discard the bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the bisque with oyster crackers.

Wine pairing: A big, oaky Chardonnay

Kathy and Jeff Pinkham