Prawn Bisque

Bisque is the French answer to the question of what to do with prawn shells, and the answer is: make them the whole dish. After eating the prawns, save and freeze the heads and shells; for a proper bisque, you want them in volume. Toast the shells hard in butter until they smell deeply roasted and turn coral-orange, then add aromatics — onion, fennel, carrot — a splash of brandy to flame off, white wine, tomato, and stock. Simmer for an hour, blitz, and pass through a fine sieve, pushing every drop of flavour through. Finish with cream. Skipping the toast step gives a watery, fishy soup, not a bisque.