Hold on to those crayfish remains – and use this luxurious recipe to indulge a second time.

Get those shells, legs and soft insides of that demolished crayfish back into the fridge and, next day, have a go at this traditional French recipe that will turn those throw-away remains into the most delectable soup or sauce.

Known around the culinary world as ‘lobster bisque’ (and Kiwi crayfish are a species of spiny rock lobster) our recipe is a ‘consensus’ of many such recipes.

Bisques are a type of soup, historically based on crustaceans, (crayfish, lobster, shrimp or crab), that are thickened in one of a myriad of ways, and then finished with cream.

It's not the most simple of soup recipes and certainly needs patience to make – but then you are turning a waste product into one of the culinary world’s most delicious soups or sauces to enhance other dishes.

Cooking the shell
We used the shell and remains of one large crayfish for this recipe.

You need to break up your cray remains. We used a blender on quick short pulses and a spatula to retain all those creamy bits from the blender bowl along with shell bits.

Some recipes roast the shell remains in the oven or simply add them to the vegetable mixture and cook it all at the same time.

We found you get the most intense flavour from cray leftovers when the shell bits are pan-fried separately in a little, very hot oil to make them ‘toasty’.

Vegetables
The foundation of your bisque is a ‘mirepoix’ – a mixture of an equal combination of finely diced carrots, leek, celery, onion and a few black peppercorns and a bay leaf. Add crushed cloves of garlic in this case.

Ingredients:
2 x med sized white onions
2 x med sized carrots
¼ x leek
2 x celery stalks
6 x black peppercorns
1 x bay leaf
2 x garlic cloves, crushed
25ml cooking oil
1tbsp tomato paste
50ml whiskey or brandy
125ml white wine
500ml chicken stock
500ml of fish stock
200ml of runny cream
Lemon or lime zests for garnish

Heat 25ml of oil (olive oil is best) in a soup pot and add the evenly diced vegetables with the peppercorns and bay leaf. Sweat the mixture off for between five and 10 minutes until the onions are translucent.

Add the toasted crayfish mixture.

Add one tbsp of tomato paste and cook a while – stirring the contents until the paste is cooked a little.

Add 50ml of brandy or whiskey. You have a choice here – an easy one and a dangerous one. You can either just slosh the brandy in there or you can flambé it as it goes into the soup pot. Flambé may be the traditional French approach but unless you are skilled in this procedure our advice is to forget it – you might set yourself and the kitchen alight – just add the brandy to the soup mixture at this point and no one will be able to tell the difference.  

Liquids
At this stage add 125ml of whatever white wine you are partial to and feel free to help yourself to a glass to sharpen your concentration.

Reduce the soup a little with more cooking before adding (at the same time) 500ml of chicken stock and 500ml of fish stock (packet stuff is good).

Put a lid on your soup pot and simmer the whole concoction for 45 minutes on low heat.

Another tricky part
Strain the hot liquid (take care and please use an extra pair of hands) through muslin cloth (lining it in a stainless steel strainer for ease) into a bowl. Use the back of a large spoon to squash the last of that delicious concentrated liquid out through the muslin.

You now have your crayfish bisque base and at this stage you can freeze it for future use, should you wish to.

Last stage
Add 200ml of good ole Kiwi runny cream. Most recipes add more than this but they tend to be from a time (and culture) when cream was used to ‘fill’ out the flavour of many cooked liquid dishes.

Seasoning
Taste the bisque at this point. Add salt and a little cayenne pepper and 10ml of lemon juice to taste if necessary.

Presentation
Traditionally this soup is garnished with fresh tarragon. If nothing else, a light swirl of a little fresh cream and a sprinkle of lemon zest will complement the top perfectly. This is already an intense soup – but popular additions that you can add at the last stage are steamed prawns, cooked seafood mousse ravioli, or julienne of cucumber that has been tossed in butter.

Hey! Don’t even bother trying to count the calories.