Lobster soup

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Lobster soup represents great value for money.

By Mike Robinson of The Field

Monday, 18 August 2008

As a chef, I am naturally a bit parsimonious when it comes to expensive ingredients.

I mean, I love foie gras and caviar, but would find it difficult to put them on my menus all the time. The fact is, a lot of really expensive food items are hard to justify in these lean times, especially since quite a few carry controversial baggage with them.

Yet there are ingredients that are just too glorious to resist and, while expensive, will not break the bank or cripple you with guilt for contributing towards the demise of an entire species. The greatest among these is the most fabulous seafood of all, the lobster. Let us consider him for a minute. The lobster breeds prolifically, it grows to a great size and can live to 150 years or more. We are all aware that seafood is a hot environmental issue, with fish stocks catastrophically low, but here the lobster is a safe bet.

Lobsters are increasing in numbers as a direct result of overfishing of their main predator, cod. The cod would cruise around snapping up baby lobsters by the dozen, but now they are declining the lobster survival rate is hugely improved.

Lobsters are still expensive, but not to the extent they used to be when you compare them to the price of other fish. To give you an idea, a good lobster will cost you about £20 per kilo, or £15 to £20 each, while a 1kg line-caught bass will cost in the region of £25. Considering a 1kg lobster might be 10 years old, this represents great value.

There are lobsters and lobsters, however. The two species I prefer are the native (Cornish) lobster – dark and slender – and the rounder, larger North American or Canadian lobster. Each is very good, though I reckon the native just tips the scales on both flavour and price.

Lobster soup

Serves 20
1 bulb garlic
2 heads fennel
1 bunch celery
2 large onions
1 red chilli
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 lobster shells (you have
eaten the flesh already)
1/2 bottle white wine
1kg (21/4lb) shell-on prawns
or langoustines
1kg (21/4lb) small red mullet, whole,
or other mixed white fish, whole
4 tins really good Italian tomatoes
1 tsp saffron strands
Salt and pepper to season
Cognac to taste
Pernod to taste

For this treat we are going to use the lobsters’ shells, as well as some prawns and fish. While unutterably delicious, this is a by-product recipe and thus represents great value for money.

Start by heating a huge pot on the stove. Chop the vegetables and chilli and throw them in, together with the olive oil. Sweat them off for 15 minutes.

While they are cooking, smash the lobster shells up with a hammer until they are as finely broken as possible. I suggest you put them under an unwanted tea towel to do this. (By the way, this is great for getting rid of pent-up aggression.) Add them to the pot with the white wine, prawns and fish, then the tomatoes and saffron. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Once this is done, blitz the mixture in a food processor until it is all a mush. Now the really boring bit: find a fine sieve and pass the mush through it until you are left with a thin, gorgeous-smelling broth. Throw away the mush that remains (or bait your crayfish traps with it).

Put the soup back on the stove and reduce the liquor by half. This will concentrate the flavour and improve
it no end.

When reduced, season with salt and pepper and add cognac and Pernod to taste. You should be left with about three litres of amazing soup. Serve with warm toast and rouille.