The same way I save the chicken carcass after a chicken dinner to make stock, I save lobster shells all summer long and turn them into a seafood broth. I place the spent shells in a Ziplock bag and freeze them for later use. You can do this with shrimp shells, too, and you can even combine lobster and shrimp shells in the same freezer bag over the course of a few months.
What do the shells add to the broth? A beautiful brininess. It’s the essence of the sea.
— Alex Province
•ON-DEMAND: Listen to Alex describe how this soup comes together on The Faith Middleton Food Schmooze®. •
Photo: Stu Spivack/Flickr, creative commons
Ingredients
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 3 carrots (use 1 for the broth and the others, medium-diced for the soup)
- 1 onion
- 2-3 celery stalks (use 1 for the broth and the others, medium-diced for the soup)
- Discarded shells from a lobster, shrimp or both
- 2 strips bacon
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2-3 quarts water
- 2 ounces sweet sherry (Chris likes Harvey’s Bristol Cream)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 pounds potatoes, new or Yukon Gold
- 1 cup corn
- 1-2 pounds seafood (whatever looks good, but hearty enough to hold up such as cod, halibut, monkfish, scallops, shrimp, or lobster)
- drizzle heavy cream
- Italian flat leafed parsley for garnish
Servings: people
Instructions
- To make a the broth, add the olive oil or butter to a heavy-bottom stock pot. Add finely chopped carrots and onions, celery, the shells, bacon, and a scoop of tomato paste. Sauté the ingredients for a few minutes and add a bay leaf (or two, if you like). Add the sweet sherry to loosen any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and then add the water.
- Cover the pot and let the liquid gently simmer for about 30-45 minutes. Stir it, taste it, and add salt and pepper to taste.
- When the broth is where you want it to be, strain it to remove the shells. Then, add nicely diced potatoes, medium-diced carrots and celery, and the corn, (for color and round out the soup). As a final step, add a beautiful piece of fish, lobster or shrimp to the soup and allow to gently cook just until perfectly opaque. Right before serving, add a drizzle of heavy cream and another splash of sherry, if you like.
