Composition and useful properties of bisque sauce. How is it eaten, what recipes for its preparation can be brought to life in the home kitchen? Are there any contraindications to the use of sauce?
Bisque sauce is a vegetable and shrimp sauce designed to be paired with main courses (pasta, fish and more). It belongs to haute cuisine and is rather difficult to prepare. Despite this, it can be cooked in your home kitchen in just 1-1.5 hours.
Composition and calorie content of bisque shrimp sauce
The main ingredient in bisque is shrimp shells. To prepare one serving of gravy, 1 kg of this seafood is used. Onions, tomatoes and carrots act as additional components of the sauce. The dish is seasoned with all kinds of aromatic spices, such as ground pepper, sage, etc. The sauce must have a hint of alcoholic drink, as a rule, brandy is used for this.
The calorie content of bisque per 100 g is 88 kcal, of which:
- Protein - 1 g;
- Fats - 6, 4 g;
- Carbohydrates - 4, 1 g.
Please note that the data is based on the calorie content of raw foods.
The main nutrients in shrimp sauce are:
- Trace elements: iron, fluorine, zinc, copper;
- Macronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium;
- Vitamins: A, D, E, C, B1, B2, B5, B6, B9, B12, PP.
Useful properties of bisque sauce
Shrimp bisque has a lot of useful properties, but a person eats it in limited quantities and cannot feel all the healing powers of the sauce. To benefit from this gravy, it must be eaten regularly and as a complete meal.
The main benefit of bisque is due to the presence of shrimp shells. It is known that seafood is rich in vitamins and minerals, without which the human body cannot function normally. So if you want to recharge your energy and health, treat yourself to whole shrimp. Bisque sauce is intended more for pleasure than for healing the body.
Nevertheless, the following main beneficial properties of the sauce can be distinguished:
- Prevents the development of anemia. Thanks to shrimp, it is rich in iron, protein and a set of vitamins that prevent anemia.
- Optimizes thyroid function. The chemical composition of seafood contains a lot of iodine, which is often deficient in modern man.
- Rejuvenates the body, maintains the normal state of a person with diabetes mellitus, because shrimp are rich in antioxidants and healthy fatty acids, which diabetics cannot do without.
- Strengthens the immune system. Onions and other vegetables that make up the sauce are rich in vitamin C, which takes an active part in strengthening the protective function of the body.
- It has a beneficial effect on men's health. Shrimp contain selenium, which is actively involved in the normalization of hormonal levels in men.
Contraindications and harm of shrimp bisque sauce
The harm of bisque, as well as its benefits, are rather conventional. This sauce is served in a pair with a dish in limited quantities, so it cannot cause significant harm to the human body.
Shrimp are rich in protein, so everyone who suffers from protein intolerance should refuse meals with their participation.
Also, you won't benefit from a sauce made with radioactive shrimp. The fact is that they are able to absorb radioactive substances from the environment, so it is very important that they are grown in ecologically clean areas.
Shrimp that were grown in artificial reservoirs, in most cases, can saturate the human body not only with useful nutrients, but also with harmful chemicals. Together with the sauce, you can eat antibiotics and a complex of other harmful substances that are fed to them to accelerate growth.
How to make bisque sauce?
During the preparation of a bisque, most of your time will be taken up by processing shrimp shells, so please be patient. On average, it takes about 1 hour to prepare the sauce.
Step-by-step recipe for bisque sauce:
- Peel and dice 1 medium carrot, 1 onion and some celery (2 will suffice).
- Fry the chopped ingredients in a little olive oil and 1 sage stalk.
- Wash 1kg of shrimp shells and chop into as small pieces as possible.
- When the vegetables in the pan are browned, add the prepared shells and a little salt and pepper to your taste.
- Cook the mixture over medium heat for 2 minutes, then add 2 tbsp. l. brandy and wait for the alcohol to evaporate.
- Next, add 250 g of tomatoes in their own juice to the pan and 1, 5-2 tbsp. water.
- Simmer the sauce blank for 40 minutes and do not forget to monitor the boiling force - the fire should be slightly screwed all the time.
- After stewing, remove the sauce from the stove and let it sit for about 20 minutes.
- The last stage of preparation is grinding the mixture with a blender. The sauce should be as homogeneous as possible.
Interesting! Julia Child, a famous American chef and author of numerous books on cooking, has written many tips on how to properly prepare bisque. She advised cooks not to wash spoons and other utensils that are used repeatedly in the process of making the sauce. Julia argued that "not a single particle of the sauce's great aroma and taste should be washed down the sink."
If you want to really surprise your loved one and are ready to devote the maximum amount of time to creating the sauce, try making bisque from the combined composition of crustaceans:
- As in the previous recipe, start your sauce by roasting the vegetables. Cut into small pieces 500 g carrots, some fresh tomatoes and 1 celery stalk. Add some onions to them (you can use a turnip and leek). Fry the ingredients in vegetable oil.
- Add tiger prawn shells and other store-bought seafood to the sautéed vegetables. Even crayfish are good for the sauce. The gravy will get a special taste thanks to the shells of lobster and crab. In general, use all the shells that you have - the main thing is that their total weight is 500 g. Do not throw absolutely raw shells into the pan with vegetables; it is better to dry them thoroughly in the oven before cooking.
- Simmer vegetables with shells for 10 minutes.
- Add 300 g of tomato paste to the sauce blank and simmer the mixture for about 5 minutes.
- Pour 2 liters of raw water into the sauce and cook until the vegetables are fully cooked. This will take you about 20 minutes.
- Season with whiskey sauce (50 ml) and spices: 30 g sugar, a little salt and pepper, 15 g garlic. You can add bay leaves if you like.
- To maximize the saturation of the sauce with aromatic components, boil it for another 5 minutes.
- The sauce is ready, now it needs to be infused for a while - 20-30 minutes will be enough.
- The final stage of cooking is rubbing the sauce through a sieve, tightening with butter (20 g) and cream (a few tablespoons). To make it easier to wipe the gravy, grind it in a blender beforehand. You do not need to throw away the shells, they must also be crushed.
The sauce prepared according to this recipe can be frozen for storage. In this case, the main thing is not to add cream to it, it is better to use them after defrosting.
The original bisque doesn't have to be sparse in consistency, so evaporate the sauce if you have a soup-like gravy.
Professional advice! Take your shrimp selection seriously. A high-quality product is always sold in a package with information about the manufacturer, that is, the address and name of the company, as well as its contact phone number, must be indicated on the package with shrimps. Refuse to buy a product if only the name of the LLC is written on its packaging. Also pay attention to the condition of the shrimp themselves - they should have a smooth color and curled tails.
Recipes with shrimp shell bisque sauce
Culinary experts use bisque made from the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans for dressing almost any second course. We present to your attention several recipes for delicious culinary dishes using bisque sauce - such food is perfect for decorating a festive table:
- Fusilli with bisque sauce … For this dish you will need shrimp sauce, its recipe is described above. Boil 100 g of fusilli (pasta in the form of spirals) in a large amount of salted water. The pasta should turn out al dente (in simple words - a little undercooked). Boil 7-10 pcs. king prawns. Combine cooked pasta with bisque sauce and serve with shrimp.
- Salmon with spinach … Fry 200 g of salmon in butter and bake in the oven until cooked through for 10 minutes. Lightly fry 300 g spinach in butter. Serve the fish as follows: pour the shrimp bisque sauce onto a serving plate, place the fish on it and garnish with spinach.
- Spaghetti with crab … Fry a few chopped garlic cloves, a sprig of thyme and chopped onions (1 onion) in olive oil (50 ml). Salt the resulting mass, add 60 g of crab meat and 30 ml of brandy to it. Put the mixture on the fire again and fry until the alcohol has completely evaporated. Choose a deep skillet for cooking. When the crab meat is fried, fill it with fish broth (150 ml) and bisque sauce (70 g) along with the vegetables. Add 70 g of mashed tomatoes. Boil 90 g of spaghetti so that they are slightly damp. Place them in a clean skillet and fry in a little butter. While frying, season the spaghetti with ground pepper and 50 ml of olive oil. Serve spaghetti mixed in sauce and garnished with chopped parsley.
- A drum under a fish bone bisque … The original bisque is made from shrimp shells, but chefs from all over the world are experimenting with its recipe and even making a sauce from fish bones. To prepare a sauce according to a non-standard recipe, fry 1.5 kg of fish bones in a combination of butter and vegetable oil (choose the dishes as wide as possible). Add 1 head of garlic to the bones during frying (just peel the cloves, but do not chop) and 120 g of onions, cut in half. When all the ingredients are golden, pour 3 liters of water over them and simmer for 1 hour under a closed lid. After this time, add 600 g of chopped red tomatoes to the pan and simmer again without a lid for 30 minutes. After that, the sauce can be chopped with a blender and rubbed through a sieve. While the encore is stewing, you can start preparing the main dish - red mullet. Divide the fish into fillets, fry in a little olive oil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve the fish with the sauce. If the bisque has hardened by that time, heat it up a little, but do not boil it. Bon Appetit!
Interesting facts about bisque sauce
Historians find it difficult to say for certain where shrimp bisque was first prepared. If we rely on the etymology of the name of the sauce, we can assume that it was invented in the Spanish province called Biscay.
Currently, bisque is a sauce or soup made from crustaceans. However, in the 18th century, the French called so any soup with a thick consistency, even one that was made from poultry.
How to make bisque sauce - watch the video:
Shrimp bisque is a masterpiece of world cuisine. Any dish seasoned with such a gravy automatically becomes a restaurant and expensive one. For the sauce to be as healthy as possible for humans, it must be made from organic ingredients. Not every consumer can be sure which shrimp or other crustacean was used to make the sauce. Therefore, use bisque only in trusted establishments with a good reputation.
