This week marked the start of dungeness crab season. Growing up on the east coast, I had many a crab cake made with the Maryland blue crab. I had no idea what I was missing. This rendition of dungeness crab was no exception.
This recipe really lets the crab steal the show. Although it is a little time consuming because of the added time to make the shellfish fumet, the extra time is well worth it. We put it in Stanley Thermos’ (like the kind my dad used to take to work) and brought it to our annual Christmas tree cutting trip in the National Forest. For some reason, bisque just feels right for the holidays.
In season, dungeness crab is not terribly expensive if you are willing to do a little work (i.e. buy whole crabs and take the meat out yourself instead of buying lump crab meat). I went to Newman’s yesterday and picked up 3 whole crabs that were caught early that morning. They sell them cooked and cleaned, so I only had to remove the crab meat. I saved the shells to make shellfish fumet for the base of the bisque. Making fumet is alot like making chicken stock – in fact, most of the ingredients are the same. I used a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
This bisque recipe makes a more brothy bisque, which I prefer. Use less fumet is your prefer a heavier bisque. Although you could use chicken stock in place of the fumet, I highly recommend using the fumet.
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