Bisque or Crayfish Coulis

Ingredients

• 30 crayfish (écrevisses), average weight 40 grams each
• 50 grams carrot
• 350 grams onion
• 1 fragment of thyme and bay leaf
• 3 parsley stems
• 1 small spoonful cognac
• 2 deciliters white wine
• 180–200 grams rice
• 4.5 liters white consommé (fond de cuisine, cooking stock)
• 12 grams salt
• pepper from the mill
• 2.5 deciliters white consommé
• 150 grams butter
• 1 deciliter crème
• Cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Finely dice the mirepoix (carrot, onion, thyme, bay leaf, and parsley stems). Sauté the mirepoix in butter until softened.
2. Add the washed and cleaned crayfish to the mirepoix and sauté until the shells turn bright red. Season with salt and pepper from the mill. Flambe with cognac, then add the white wine and reduce slightly.
3. Moisture (mouiller) with 2.5 deciliters of white consommé and cook for 10 minutes.
4. In parallel, cook the rice with three-quarters of a liter of white consommé until tender.
5. Remove the crayfish shells and reserve the tails and 10 head carapaces (coffres) for garnish. Finely pound the remaining crayfish meat. Combine the pounded crayfish with the cooked rice and the cooking liquid from the crayfish, then pass through a fine sieve (étamine).
6. Dilute the purée with 1.5 deciliters of white consommé, bring to a boil, and pass through a chinois (conical strainer). Keep warm in a bain-marie (water bath).
7. Just before serving, finish the bisque by mounting with 150 grams of butter (monter au beurre) and adding 1 deciliter of crème. Season lightly with Cayenne pepper.
8. Garnish with the reserved crayfish tails cut into small dice, and the head carapaces cleaned and filled with fish forcemeat mixed with cream, poached at the moment of service.