Recipe Langoustine soup (like lobster, only a lot smaller)

Langoustine soup.
First course of the Christmas meal...
Also a very good starter for the New Years eve feast.

Be prepared, it takes a while to make it.
When I say a while, I mean about 3 hours.
Worth it!

(we call it lobster soup because it's our langoustine is our lobster, it's small but packed full of flavor)


It's made in three stages.
1. Make the broth that holds the flavor, this takes a while.
2. Make a butter and flour ball adding the liquid goodness little by little.
3. Add the double cream and the langoustine meat.


Step 1.
You will need:

500 gr. Langoustine shells
(remove the meat and store separately, you will want it later.)


2 medium sized carrots
1/2 red bell pepper
1 large onion
1/2 apple
4 mushroms
2 cloves of garlic
40 gr butter
2 tbsp tomato paste (puree)
1 tbsp dried estragon
1 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp curry
1 tsp chilly
1 tsp cayenne pepper 
1/2 tsp salt
1,5 liters water



Place butter, salt, spices, garlic and onion in a pot and let it warm up and mix till the onion softens.
Add the tomato paste and the langoustine shells, let them warm up in the mixture.
Then put the bell pepper, apple, mushrooms and carrot.
Roll around.
Add the water.




It's going to look like that nice picture :)



Let simmer for 2 hours...
 


Now it's going to look like the other one.


The murky water is a broth which should have a smokey, slightly spicy taste to it.







Strain it.
















You should be left with about a liter of liquid.












Time for step 2.
Making the actual soup.



Melt 50 gr of butter in pot.
Add about 50 gr. of flour.
Stir vigorously.
This is the base of your soup, it will make the soup thick but doesn't have any flavor,
that comes from the liquid you patiently made earlier.


Now the tricky part.
Don't be too hasty.
You don't want to make the soup lumpy.

Little by little add the liquid stirring all the time to make it nice and smooth.

The first time you add the liquid the butter/ flour base is going to become very dense very suddenly.

See how it turns into a big ball of yellowish mush.

Keep calm.
Stir.
Stir to keep it even.
Stir to keep it smooth.


I'm taking the picture while stirring... that's how important it is.






Then I add the liquid in small doses to the thick mush.


Just remember to do it evenly and not to hurry.



Let the soup thicken and reach boiling point before adding the next batch of liquid.


Keep adding till it's all there and it's nice and soup-like.




At this point you should have tasted it once or twice, you could always add some spices, maybe a little bit of vegetable or fish bullion for flavor... or not.

Turn the heat to low to keep the soup warm, but not boiling.




Step 3.
Almost done.





You want the soup to be nice and creamy...
Double cream is best for that.


I added about 100 ml. of double cream.




Just need to add the langoustine, whipped cream and serve.

The soup should be hot enough at this point to cook the langoustine in the bowl you intend to serve it in.




You could also put it in a pan for a minute and roll it in some butter, garlic and estragon spice.










I serve it with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

 Have a Creamy Christmas
And a Delicious New Year.