Banjo's Easy Shrimp Bisque - Sous Vide

We recently bought a frozen package of shrimp from Costco.  It's labeled as Kirkland's Raw Tail On Shrimp, 21-25 count per pound, 2 pounds.


I've enjoyed using this shrimp in different ways to make different meals.

Today I'm going to make an original - Banjo's Easy Shrimp Bisque - Sous Vide.  It's easy because I'm using 2 cans of Bar Harbor Lobster Bisque as the base, and Sous Vide to cook it.

For those of you not familiar with Sous Vide, it is a water-bath immersion method of cooking utilizing precise temperatures.  For additional insight, see this link.  Since shrimp can easily be over cooked, this is a great utilization of Sous Vide cooking.  Note: there are several ways to cook Sous Vide, and I've done them all.  If you are doing this for home cooking, then have a look at the Sous Vide Supreme, a great home tool.


Servings

• 2 - 4, depending on whether it's the main course or accompanying other elements.

Time

• Prep: 15 mins
• Cooking: 1 hour in Sous Vide (no attention required on your part - put it in and walk away)
• Total: 1 hr 15 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cans (10.5 oz each) of Bar Harbor Lobster Bisque.  Note: if you can't find this brand, then look for premium brands of bisque.  It can be lobster, shrimp, or crab.  Lobster is what our local grocery store carries.
• 6 frozen (or fresh if you are local to a good source!) shrimp taken from 21-25 count shrimp.
• 1 gallon Heavy Duty Freezer ZipLoc bag.
• Optional: 1/4 cup cream
• Sous Vide cooker.

Steps

Sorry about the goofy alignment of the pictures.  Google Blog isn't giving me much capability to align them with the text.

1. Preheat Sous Vide to 142dF.
2. Remove 6 shrimp from frozen shrimp bag.
3. Place into the ZipLoc bag.
4. Remove all air from ZipLoc bag.  If not familiar with how to do this, go to youtube.com and view this video.
5. Submerge ZipLoc into Sous Vide.
6. Heat shrimp for 10 minutes to thaw - they should be orange-ish in color now. 
7. Remove shrimp from ZipLoc bag and place onto cutting board.  Retain the shrimp-water that is in bag for flavor in bisque.
8. Remove tails by pinching meat out while pulling on tail - this extracts all of the meat.  
9. Discard tails (or you can retain and pull out later - your preference).
10. Finely chop shrimp.  You want a real-fine grained chop here - pulp is good.
11. Place ZipLoc bag into large bowl, and bend back the top of the bag so  the lip of bag doesn't get food on it.  The bowl is here to stop any mess while providing support for the bag to remain open while you are adding ingredients.
12. Place shrimp back into ZipLoc bag.
13. Add both cans of lobster bisque into ZipLoc bag.  If adding cream, add now.
14. Close most of bag while squeezing air out of bag.
15. Carry bowl with bag to sink, and fill bowl with water while preventing bag from filling with water.
16. Remove all air from ZipLoc bag.  If not familiar with how to do this, go to youtube.com and view this video.
17. Cook for 1 hour (or more - this is one of the beauties of Sous Vide Cooking) at 142dF.
18. Serve into individual bowls.
19. Top with a little cracked pepper, salt to taste.