C — I finally get to use sage!
It’s been an abundant year for food from the garden. Its amazing. I think I mentioned all the tomatoes we had. But, there was so much more. In the beginning of the season, Jim planted all sorts of stuff: three different types of kale, two types of basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, tomatoes, chili peppers, watermelons and, of course, our friends the sage plants.
Most of the things we used and had stories to tell. Like the watermelon plants that didn’t get enough sun and ended up having a million seeds in the one that actually grew. It was one of the smallest, grossest things we’ve ever planted. Or, the bell pepper plant that kept on growing, but never produced anything at all. I wasn’t too happy about that one. Or, the Thai pepper plant that produced millions of little peppers, and now we don’t know what to do with them. Hmmm … sriracha sauce recipe might be coming.
Anyway, I digress … SAGE!!!
I asked Jim to plant sage for me. I swore to him I would use it. I promised. He planted three for me, but I completely forgot about them and, even worse, I forgot what I wanted to use them for. Supposedly, there were lots of recipes. Sage is an amazing plant. When a few of the other herbs from the garden died, the sage lived on. All the dill, cilantro and parsley gone. Long live sage.
I love the smell of sage in the house. It makes the house smell delicious. It smells very woodsy in here right now. I might need a sage air freshener… or not.
The taste of sage in this recipe really makes it feel like Fall.
Pumpkin and sage go together well. It’s flavor profile is very complex because of the woodsy quality it has.
| Pumpkin Shrimp Bisque |
- 1 pound large shrimp (16 to 20)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- 3 cups homemade or canned low-sodium chicken stock
- Pinch of saffron threads (about 24)
- 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium onion (about 8 ounces), coarsely chopped
- 4 fresh bay leaves, torn, or 2 dried
- 3 springs fresh sage, about 3-inches each
- 2 cups pumpkin purée, fresh or canned (see Note)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- About ¾ tsp salt, less if using canned stock
- Scant ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
- Peel and devein shrimp, reserving the shells. Cover the shrimp and refrigerate.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium (3-quart) heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat until it begins to smoke. Add the shrimp shells to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until they turn deep orange and are just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. This step—pan roasting the shells—gives the stock much of its flavor, so take the time to do it carefully. The roasted shells should release a concentrated, toasty, shrimp aroma that will fill your kitchen.
- Add the wine to the pan, first turning off gas flames to prevent the alcohol from igniting. Boil it over medium heat until all the liquid is evaporated.
- Add the chicken stock, saffron, celery, onion, bay leaves, and sage. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Partially cover the pan and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pushing down on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid.
- Rinse out the saucepan and pour the stock back into it.
- Whisk the pumpkin, cream, salt (omit if using canned stock), and cayenne into the shrimp stock.
- Bring the soup to a simmer. Cook very gently, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and season with black pepper and more salt if needed. (The soup can be made up to this point up to 1 day ahead. Store covered in the refrigerator. Keep the peeled shrimp in a resealable bag buried in a bowl of ice in the refrigerator.)
- Pour the olive oil into a large sauté pan placed over medium heat.
- When hot, add the reserved shrimp and sage and cook, tossing often, until the shrimp are just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Shrimp should be pink and no longer translucent, but not curled into a circle. They should still have a tender snap when you bite into them. Arrange the shrimp in warmed serving bowls.
- Bring the soup back to a simmer. Then ladle it over the shrimp.
- Garnish with bits of fresh sage.
- Enjoy!
Jim loved it. The flavor of the bisque was unique and well balanced.
Adapted from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-and-Shrimp-Bisque-104123
Wow! I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Shrimp Bisque and I really, really wanted to try it…too bad your site doesn’t have a print button! I tried to copy and paste to a blank Word page, but no luck! Guess this won’t get tried at my house.
Sorry you had trouble. We sent you the recipe in Word. Enjoy!
Can I get it sent to me too please?! I would love to try this.
I had no problem copy/pasting into a Word doc. I have thumb drive with a recipes folder on there. I put different recipes on it that I want to try so I don’t have to print out and save the piece of paper somewhere. Also, the thumb drive goes with me when visiting family because I love to cook with my niece and we swap recipes!
It looks great, I will have to try this! Thank you!
Sue, this is worth just leaving your computer open and reading from the screen. Why kill a tree? Plus, you don’t need a print button. Go to the top left corner of your screen, click on the browser, and choose the print option.
You could have done a print screen, copied into a MS Paint type of program, then cropped, etc. and printed from there!
It looks good recipe but I am not sure if I can make it .I ‘ll give a try.
Printing is easy: 1) You can highlight just the text of the recipe .. not the recipe box … and copy. Then, paste into Word and print. Or, 2) You can print the whole page. See other paperless comments, above.
Did anyone try the soup or just gripe about printing. I’d like to know if anybody liked the soup.
We’ve made this soup several times in the Be Mindful. Be Human. kitchen. It is really good … or we wouldn’t make it.
Would you mind sending me the pumpkin soup recipe as well. Thanks so much.
I just finished making the soup and it is truly delicious. I didn’t have saffron so I added a pinch of turmeric instead but other than that I followed the recipe. I make a variety of seafood bisques but I hadn’t tried shrimp with pumpkin before – I’m glad I did, it is so good!
Thanks much for this recipe.
Made the soup last night and it was yummy. I followed the recipe to the letter and loved it! Easy to make!