French Seafood Bisque

Wow! This is really good. As with most Bon Appetit recipes, this one is a little fussy in an effort to get the absolute best flavored dish. And it does take a fair amount of time.

For example, it calls for using unshelled mussels and unpeeled shrimp, cooking them in their shells, then removing the meat and making a broth out of the shells. Because I used shelled, frozen seafood, I didn’t have any shells from which to make a broth. The recipe still turned out very flavorful.

My last note about this is that you don’t have to use large pieces of squid, or large mussels, shrimp or scallops, as they’re all blended into the soup, anyway.

What you’ll need

• 1 small yellow onion, halved, divided
• 3 small celery stalks, divided
• 5 cups water, plus more if needed
• 1 fresh or dried bay leaf
• 0.25t black pepper
• 1.25t kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
• 8 oz. unpeeled raw extra-large shrimp
• 4 oz. Prince Edward Island (PEI) mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 4 oz. bay scallops, side muscles removed
• 3 oz. cleaned small squid tubes and tentacles, tubes cut into 1/4-inch rings, tentacles left whole
• 0.25 cups olive oil or unsalted butter
• 3 medium carrots, roughly chopped (about 0.5 cups)
• 2T tomato paste
• 1T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish (you can skip this, with no ill effect to the recipe)
• 1t roughly chopped fresh thyme
• 0.75t smoked paprika
• 0.25t crushed red pepper, or more to taste
• 3 medium garlic cloves, smashed
• 0.5 cups heavy cream (I used coconut cream)
• Baguette, for serving

What to do

Cut 1 onion half into 4 wedges, leaving the root-end attached, then cut 1 celery stalk in half crosswise. Set the remaining onion and celery aside. Combine the onion wedges, celery halves, 5 cups water, bay leaf, black pepper, and 0.25t salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Fill a medium bowl with ice water for cooling the cooked seafood.


Add the shrimp to the boiling onion-water mixture and cook then until they’re pink and cooked through—about 2 or 3 minutes, depending on size. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp—using a slotted spoon—to the ice bath. Add the mussels to the boiling water and cook until they open—about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the mussels to the ice bath, discarding any that did not open. Now add the scallops and squid to the boiling water, cooking them for about a minute or so before transferring them to the ice water. Reserve the onion-water mixture in the saucepan.   


This next paragraph of steps is for if you used unpeeled shrimp and un-shucked mussels. Skip if you used peeled seafood.

Drain the shrimp and mussels in a colander, then peel the shrimp and shuck the mussels—reserving the shells from both. Add the reserved shells to the onion-water mixture in saucepan, then bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the liquid reduces to about 3 cups—about 20 to 25 minutes.

While the shells are simmering, remove the remaining seafood from the ice bath, then pat it dry and set it aside. Pour the boiled shell water through a wire-mesh strainer into a large heatproof bowl. If you didn’t have shells to boil, still strain out the onions and celery from the stock. Reserve the seafood stock and discard the shells and other solids. Wipe out the saucepan for the next step.



Roughly chop the remaining onion and celery stalks, keeping them separate. Add the oil to the cleaned saucepan set over medium heat. Add the onion, and sauté it, stirring often—about 3 minutes. Stir in the celery and carrots, cooking them until slightly softened—about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, parsley, thyme, paprika, crushed red pepper, garlic, and remaining 1t salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is fragrant, and the vegetables are well coated in the tomato mixture—about 2 minutes. Stir in the reserved seafood stock, cooking it over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reduces to about 3 cups—about 15 minutes.



Set aside 4 cooked shrimp and 0.25 cups of mixed mussels, scallops, and squid for garnish. Add the heavy cream and remaining cooked seafood to the stock mixture in the saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, cooking while stirring occasionally, until the seafood is heated through—about 10 minutes.



Transfer the seafood mixture to a blender. Be careful when blending! Make sure you remove the center piece of the blender lid so steam can escape. Cover the opening with a clean kitchen towel. Blend the mixture until smooth—about 1 minute. Alternatively, you can get the same result with an immersion blender right in the saucepan. Add and mix in water a little at a time if the bisque is too thick. Add salt, to taste.

To serve, add the bisque to serving bowls and garnish with the reserved seafood and fresh parsley leaves. Serve with a sliced baguette and butter.