Chilled Cucumber Bisque Food

CHILLED CUCUMBER BISQUE

Steps:

• Blend together cucumbers, zucchini, green pepper, onion, mayonnaise, sour cream or plain yogurt, raspberry vinegar, dill weed, salt, and lemon pepper until smooth in blender size batches.
• Chill for 2 hours.
• Garnish with fresh nasturtiums (optional), and small stalks from celery hearts.

CHILLED CUCUMBER SOUP

Steps:

• Peel cucumbers and cut them in half, scraping out seeds. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and let them stand 30 minutes. Drain excess water.
• Chop the cucumbers coarsely and put the pieces in the blender along with scallions, dill, lemon juice, buttermilk, and yogurt. Blend at high speed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill well before serving.

CHILLED TOMATO BISQUE

Steps:

• Place the bread in a food processor or blender. With the machine running add the vinegar, garlic, sugar and chili, and blend until smooth.
• Add the extra virgin olive oil until the bread will absorb no more then, a little at a time, add the tomatoes, tomato ketchup, tomato juice, scallions, red pepper, cucumber and pesto. Continue to blend to form a smooth emulsion. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
• Serve with frozen olive oil cubes.

CHILLED SHRIMP BISQUE

Steps:

• In a 3 qt saucepan, melt margarine over med-high heat. Stir in onion + celery & cook till onion is tender. Stir in bouillon granules + paprika & mix well.
• Add fish stock, milk, salt & bay leaf. Reduce heat to low & simmer 15 minute.
• Add half-and-half & bring soup back to a slightly rolling boil.
• Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tbsp water or fish stock & stir into the soup. Cook till thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. (See NOTE #1).
• Stir in shrimp, sherry, lemon juice + hot pepper sauce (or Tobasco) to taste pref & allow to cool.
• Cover, refrigerate overnite & serve soup chilled as needed.
• NOTE #1: Altho not part of the recipe, I see the ideal bisque as mostly free of food solids except for the starring seafood, so I will prob opt to lightly puree the soup when removed from the heat in Step #4. Additionally, I see this soup garnished w/freshly snipped chives + 2-3 whole baby shrimp to add color & a finishing touch.
• NOTE #2: As orig written, the recipe called for 1 tsp *Shrimp Base* which was not found in the Zaar data base, but I googled it to discover it is basically a highly-concentrated shrimp stock. If available for you, use it in place of the bouillon granules which I listed in its place.