The best-tasting crabmeat comes from crabs you cook yourself. If you have access to live crabs, use them to make this bisque. Two 2-lb. Dungeness crabs or eight to ten hard-shelled blue crabs will yield about 1 lb. of crabmeat. You can also buy cooked crabs and extract the meat. Fresh lump crabmeat is the next-best option, especially if you are short on time; look for it at fish markets. Otherwise, use frozen or canned crabmeat, drained and quickly rinsed.
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Servings
8
Serves 8.
Ingredients
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. canola or grapeseed oil
3 large shallots, minced
5 cups fish or chicken stock
2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste
3⁄4 to 1 lb. fresh or thawed frozen lump crabmeat, picked over for shell fragments (3 to 4 cups)
1⁄2 cup dry sherry, dry Marsala or Madeira
Minced fresh tarragon or flat-leaf parsley for garnish
Directions
In a large soup pot over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil. Add the shallots and sauté until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the stock and cream, and season with kosher salt and white pepper. Bring to a simmer.
Reduce the heat to low and stir in the crabmeat. Cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the sherry and heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Ladle the soup into warmed shallow bowls and garnish with tarragon. Serve immediately.
Serves 8.
Adapted from
Williams-Sonoma Collection Series,
Christmas,
by Carolyn Miller
(Simon & Schuster, 2003).
Rated 4 out of
5 by
LaineyJ from
Nice and simple recipe for a very yummy soup!My husband and I went a little nuts this past New Years Eve and bought enough crab for 10 people when it was just the two of us! We had 3 king crab legs and a claw with about half a leg, plus two whole Dungeness crabs. Then my husband got two whole live lobsters!! It was fabulous and we ate quite a bit of it, but ended up with over a pound of crab meat that couldn’t be frozen as it was cooked and previously frozen to begin with. I saved the shells of all the king crab and lobster and made stock, which I used in place of the chicken broth. I fried up a few slices of bacon and sautéed the shallots in the bacon grease with the 1T butter, added 3 cloves of garlic, minced, then deglazed the pan with white wine instead of the sherry (I’m not a big fan of sherry and didn’t have any on hand). Since I wasn’t planning on eating the soup until the following day, I cooked the base up to the point of when the crab would be added and then refrigerated it. Upon reheating the next day, I added the crab, topped the bowl with the bacon, parsley and some shredded parmigiana. Delicious! I think an addition I would make (along with the previous ones I made) would be to make a roux to thicken the base a bit.
Date published: 2019-01-05
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Saram from
Loved itThis is one of my family’s favorites, we return to it time after time. I leave out the sherry completely - I didn’t have any the first time I made it and it’s great without it. my family
prefers the parsley to tarragon, and we serve it with buttered crostini. Being in the Midwest I don’t always have access to Dungeness crab, but this recipe is best with it, other types of crab are bland in it.
Date published: 2018-08-15
Rated 1 out of
5 by
YaddaYadda from
This Was Not GoodThe sherry overpowered the soup. The broth and cream combined to make an aesthetically unappealing and texturally-challenging bisque. I’ve never written a bad review of a W-S recipe before. I guess there is a first time for everything. Tossed the whole pot.
Date published: 2018-01-22
Rated 4 out of
5 by
Karensmax from
Tried this recipe with some leftover crabmeatThis was great. My house liked it, but next time I will use less shallots, and less sherry. Although I couldn't find dry sherry. They had sherry, creme sherry and very dry sherry. So I got regular sherry. Also, I only had salted butter, and it was a little salty, but still, it was very good. And very easy to make.
