The lobsters were on sale last week so opportunity knocked.
I did eat two but saved the rest including all the shells.
By the way I did have them cooked at the store, I did not eat them raw.
I remove all the legs.
Clean the bodies of any meat and the delicious roe.
Pick all the meat out of the rest of the claws and tails but save the shells.
Take the shells, bodies and legs from four lobsters and place them in 10 cups of water.
Season the water with 4 heaping tablespoons of powdered chicken consommé soup seasoning .
Let everything come to a boil and then simmer down to about 7 or 8 cups of broth.
This takes about one hour.
Strain everything into a big bowl and discard all the shells.
Make sure you strain the broth well because nothing is worse then getting a shell.
Now that your pot is empty, wash it out and use it to finish making the bisque.
Melt 6 tablespoons of butter
Add one large diced onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic
Cook slowly till everything is soft.
Add 1/2 cup of flour and mix well about 3 minutes. Stir all the time to make sure the flour does not burn.
Add one small can of tomato paste and mix well
Add one cup of the broth to dissolve the paste then add the rest of the broth to the flour mixture.
Add 1 1/2 cups of cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and mix well
Melt another 4 tablespoons of butter in a small pot.
Add 2 cups lobster meat cut into spoon size pieces.
Coat the lobster with the butter.
Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice, one tablespoon diced tarragon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
Add to the broth.
Season now with your salt and pepper because the lobster broth can be salty.
Instead of adding more cream, thicken the soup with the instant mashed potatoes.
I add one tablespoon for every cup of liquid.
I don’t usually use the potato flakes in bisque because I like it very smooth.
Top the bisque with larger pieces of lobster.
This is a real treat and not as fattening as a true bisque but not low calorie.
I like the chunks of lobster but if you want a velvet smooth bisque just put it into your food processor till it is smooth.
The bigger chunks look pretty on top of the soup.
