Hi Michelle,
[OT - not about wine at all.]
Well, crabmeat has a delicate flavor, so you aren't going to cook it like you cook crawfish or shrimps, it won't stand up to the seasoning. The recipe you posted reflects that. But, it is very Yankee in its execution. It was probably intended as a lunch entree for ladies, maybe at a card party or a shower. To make it more creole, you could brown the flour in the butter, lightly, to make a light golden-brown roux, and cook off the raw flavor of the flour, then lightly saute the celery and onion, I would add finely chopped green onions, myself, and then stir in the milk, until it made a delicate sauce, then add the crabmeat and seasoning and stir until it was mixed up. No self-respecting French person would make a cream sauce with raw flour. You could doctor up the recipe with tabasco and garlic squeezed out of a garlic press. Or some Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, which is cheaper than Paul Prudhomme's and less specialized, and covers a multitude of sins.
The recipe isn't really a bisque, per se, neither a classic French bisque, nor a creole bisque. For a French bisque, I am going to send you to Volume 2 of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in my copy it starts on page 32.
For a creole bisque, the only thing I am familiar with is crawfish bisque, and for that I would send you to Marcelle Bienvenu's "Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?" or Richard and Mimi Cohen's "The New Orleans Cookbook" or Ralph & Kacoo Olinde's "Ralph & Kacoo, A Taste of Louisiana." I don't have anything by Paul Prudhomme, and I hope you realize that Emeril Lagasse is from Massachusetts, and that Marcelle Bienvenu, a real creole, is co-author on his cookbooks. So, there you are. |
