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Shortly after MT &amp; I married I looked to make a New Year&rsquo;s Eve dinner to impress, and came across Emeril Lagasse&rsquo;s Shrimp Bisque recipe from 2002 as a starter course. Indeed, it may have been 2002, back when we still had cable TV and I could watch his Food Network show.
				I made a slightly simplified version and it became a perennial favorite, creamy and loaded with flavor. What modifications would I dare make on such a successful chef&rsquo;s concoction?
				The full name of the recipe is Shrimp Bisque with Shrimp Boulettes, a sort of fried dumpling. While Emeril&rsquo;s boulette recipe sounds great, the bisque was so tasty on its own I&rsquo;ve never gotten around to doing the extra work to make them. I may yet do that. They sound like they would be a fine finger (or toothpick) food at a gathering. But I&rsquo;ve always stopped at the bisque.
				I also opted to puree some of the cooked shrimp into the bisque at the very end with the immersion blender. This would partly be a matter of texture for some people, as not all of the tiny bits of cooked shrimp will disappear into the dish, but for me (and for the people I&rsquo;ve served it to) texture has never been a problem and the taste always gets high praise.
				Depending on how many whole shrimp you want in the serving bowls, this may mean cooking more shrimp than the recipe calls for. You may want to do some math to make sure you have X number of whole shrimp in each bowl upon plating. I just use a full pound of shrimp (as noted in the recipe below) instead of the 1/2 pound the original recipe calls for, pureeing about half of them into the bisque. But then I also use all the shrimp stock, not bothering to measure the recommended four cups.
				Lastly, Emeril calls for using whole shrimp, heads and all. I have no interest in hunting them down, and just use EZ-Peel shrimp. The shells come off readily and still add a lot of flavor to the stock. I assume heads would add more, but, well, not my cup of tea to deal with them.
				Since I&rsquo;ve never made the boulettes, I&rsquo;m not including that part of the recipe. When I do make them, I&rsquo;ll happily share, and may even make another batch of soup to compare the with and without versions.
				Dobru Chut!
				SHRIMP BISQUE (Emeril Lagasse)
				For the stock:
				2 tablespoons butter
				1/2 cup roughly chopped yellow onions
				1/4 cup roughly chopped celery
				1/4 cup roughly chopped carrots
				1 large clove garlic, peeled and smashed
				2 bay leaves
				1/2 teaspoon salt
				&#188; teaspoon black pepper corns
				Shrimp shells reserved from 1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
				&#189; cup white wine
				8 cups water
				In a large heavy pot, melt butter over medium high heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the shrimp shells and cook, stirring until golden, about three minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil, cooking until almost all evaporated. Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean container, pressing on the shrimp shells to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the shells.
				FOR THE BISQUE:
				2 tablespoons butter
				1 cup chopped yellow onion
				1/2 cup roughly chopped celery
				1/2 cup roughly chopped carrots
				&#189; teaspoon salt
				&#189; teaspoon cayenne
				&#189; teaspoon chopped garlic
				2 tablespoons tomato paste
				&#189; cup cognac or brandy
				shrimp stock (at least 4 cups)
				1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
				&#189; teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
				1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined (for the stock)
				&#190; cup heavy cream
				2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
				chopped chives for garnish
				In a clean, large pot, melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato paste and cook until starting to brown, about 2 minutes. add the cognac and cook until almost evaporated. Add shrimp stock, tarragon and thyme, and simmer for 20 minutes.
				Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender or in batches in blender or food processor.
				return to the heat and add the shrimp, cream and lemon juice. Simmer gently until the shrimp are cooked through and the flavors marry, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning if needed and serve with chive garnish.

Shrimp bisque a creamy favorite, loaded with flavor