ON FAILURE: Frothy crab bisque with fresh crab, tomato and pickle

On the weekend I purchased a milk frother.

Normally intended for the home caffeine freak to aerate their own milk, I thought the cheap device would be helpful in making airy, frothy soups.

And, by God, did it make some airy, frothy soups.



Look at all the goddamn air in that soup! Light as a feather.

But it didn't work.

Why? Too much cream.

It started off well:
- Sweat off some garlic, ginger, celery and shallots.
- Add some chopped tomatoes, cucumber (I wanted freshness), crab meat and vegetable stock (no fish stock on hand).
- Strain the stock to remove the stuff.

Now the base stock tasted good.

Here's where it went wrong:
- Add cream. Entirely too much cream. So much cream as to dilute the flavour and make the soup too rich.

A late saving grace:
- Simmer to bring the flavours together.
- Add a chopped handful of dill.
- Use the milk frother and aerate the fuck out of your soup.
- In a bowl (of, here, a jar) add a little finely diced tomato, crab meat and pickled cucumber. Add your frothy soup on top of that.
- For larger servings (it worked well as an amuse bouche size), serve alongside some buttered bread for dipping.


So what went wrong?

- Too much cream. I need to add around 1/4 of the amount (the true amount of cream I'm too embarrassed to reveal) if I want to make it edible.
- The cucumber was added too early and had no effect. Maybe add it late, shaved over the top?
- The first time I tried it, the tomato, crab and pickle stuff was room temperature. This needs to be warm or it's an odd sensation when eating.


Back to the drawing board, but with new knowledge in tact.

Failure is only failure if nothing is learned.