Bisque, or Coulis d'écrevisses (Crayfish Bisque)

Ingredients

• 30 crayfish for bisque
• 50 grammes carrot
• 50 grammes onion
• a fragment of thyme and of bay
• 3 parsley stalks
• 1 small spoonful cognac
• 2 decilitres white wine
• 180 to 200 grammes rice
• 1 litre and a half white Consommé
• butter
• 12 grammes salt
• a little pepper from the mill
• 150 grammes butter
• 1 decilitre cream
• Cayenne
• cream fish forcemeat

Instructions

1. Fry the very finely cut Mirepoix in butter.
2. Add the crayfish, washed and gutted, and toss them in the Mirepoix until the shell is well red.
3. Season with 12 grammes of salt and a little pepper from the mill, moisten with the cognac and the white wine, and let reduce.
4. Moisten with 2 decilitres and a half of Consommé and let cook for 10 minutes.
5. Cook the rice with three quarters of a litre of Consommé.
6. Shell the crayfish; reserve the tails and 10 body shells.
7. Pound the rest finely, add the rice and the cooking liquor of the crayfish, and pass through the tammy.
8. Dilute the purée with half a litre of Consommé, give it a boil, pass through the chinois, and put it in the bain-marie.
9. Just at the moment of serving, complete with 150 grammes of butter and 1 decilitre of cream, and lift it lightly with Cayenne.
10. For the garnish: cut the reserved tails in dice; trim the reserved shells, fill them with cream fish forcemeat, and poach them at the moment.