Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [58]
In a separate pan, meanwhile, cook the rice in some more stock, or water. When very tender, put it into the liquidizer with most of the crab meat (keep enough for the garnish). Blend to a purée and add to the crab shell stock. Taste and dilute further if necessary with more stock or water. Add cream to taste and reheat to just under boiling point. Put in extra seasoning, with a good pinch of cayenne, and the crab pieces you kept for the garnish. Leave for another 5 minutes, still without boiling, then serve with croûtons or bread fried in butter.
CHILLED GUMBO BISQUE
The gumbo stews of the southern states of America are often given their defining character by okra. Here is a delicious soup in which they may seem subdued: nonetheless they are essential to the satin smoothness and unusual flavour of the soup. This recipe is an anglicized version of a bisque devised by a New York friend to use up a can of crab claws. I never find canned shellfish satisfactory – it is almost as tasteless as the frozen kind – and prefer to use fresh crab claws which are sometimes sold separately, or fresh prawns in their shells. The important thing is to have some hard debris to flavour the stock, as well as soft meat for finishing the soup.
300–375 g (10–12 oz) fresh boiled crab claws or prawns in their shells
1 litre (1¾ pt) fish or chicken stock, plus 450 ml (15 fl oz) water or 1 kg (2 lb) fish trimmings plus 1½ litres (2½ pt) water and 250 ml (8 fl oz) dry white wine or cider
100 g (3½ oz) chopped celery
100 g (3½ oz) chopped onion
½ green pepper, chopped
2–3 tablespoons butter
250 g (8 oz) okra
1 medium can tomatoes (approx. 400 g/14 oz)
100 g (3½ oz) rice
salt, pepper, cayenne
Shell crab claws or prawns. Put the debris into a large pan. Set aside the meat. To the pan, add stock and water, or fish trimmings, water and wine or cider. Simmer for 45 minutes to extract the flavours, then strain into a measuring jug and add water to make 1½ litres (2½ pt). Meanwhile, soften the celery, onion and pepper in butter. Prepare and cut the okra in slices 1 cm (½ inch) thick. Add them with stock, tomatoes and rice to the vegetables. Season. Cover and simmer for an hour. Purée in the blender, dilute further if you like, then chill overnight or for at least 4 hours. Serve with some or all of the crab meat or prawns.
CRAB OR SHRIMP SOUP
Crabs, shrimps, prawns and freshwater crayfish can all be used to make a bisque, even the tiny crabs you pick up on holiday.
Use the Bisque de homard recipe (p. 211) as a guide. You will need 1–1½ kg (2–3 lb) of crab or shrimps. Substitute water for fish stock and add 500 g (1 lb) or more of good tomatoes. With tiny shellfish there is obviously no point in attempting to separate the meat from the shell, but it is important to break them up in a rough and ready fashion, about halfway through the main cooking time, so that none of their flavour is wasted.
For a more southern flavour, substitute olive oil for butter, include garlic and saffron in the herbs, and cook some fine pasta (forget the rice) in the soup after it has been sieved.
This recipe shows that no fish, however tiny, are useless to the cook, so long as the quantity is there.
CRAB TART (Tarte soufflée au crabe)
Use crab meat that is fresh for this tart, preferably from crabs you have cooked yourself. The recipe is easily adapted to other shellfish, with appropriate changes or additions to the seasoning.
In Britain, we like our pie pastry to be short and crumbly; if we need something stronger, for instance for raised pies, we use a hot water crust. The French pâte brisée lies somewhere between the two; it has to hold the filling for an