Cajun Shrimp Bisque

For the shrimp stock:

Bring the water to a boil in a stock pot and then toss in all of the remaining stock ingredients. Boil for 20-30 minutes. Strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl or container and discard the solids.

For the bisque:
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the onions, celery and garlic. Saute until soft, 5 minutes. Add the flour and tomato paste and toss to coat the veggies. Remove pan from the heat.

Stir in the milk and stock and whisk until combined. Add the bay leaf, torn basil and hot sauce. Put the pot back on the heat and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Toss in some salt.

If you have an immersion blender, go ahead and stick it into the soup and blend it for about 30 seconds. At first I didn’t and my soup looked a bit separated. This definitely helped. If you don’t have an immersion blender, and your soup isn’t as creamy as you want it to look, ladle out 2 cups of the soup into a regular blender and blend until creamy. Add it back to the soup and stir to combine. Look bisque-y-er? Yeah.

Add the shrimp and cook until the shrimp is pink, 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the scallions. Taste it. More salt? Do it. More hot sauce? Oh yeah. Get it just right for your taste buds.

Ladle up, garnish with more scallions and serve with crackers!