1 pound whole shrimp
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium leek, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cups water

4 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried dill
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper

1. Shell shrimp and put shells, carrot, leek and bay leaf with the water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender. Put through a strainer and season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Melt butter with garlic in a large soup pot over medium heat, then whisk in the flour. Cook for about a minute.
3. Gradually whisk in the shrimp broth until fully incorporated, then add the milk, cream and shrimp meat.
4. Once the shrimp has turned pink, stir in paprika, dill and lemon juice. Adjust seasoning as necessary and serve.

Makes 4 servings

Since Shannon has company visiting and they'll be eating out a lot, this is a perfect opportunity for me to cook things that would kill Shannon. I made a single dish tonight, Shrimp Bisque, but it was a laborious single dish that incorporated a few firsts.

1) I had never made stock from shrimp shells before. I think there's something very satisfying about making your own stock, like you're not leaving anything to go to waste. Of course, since cuts of meat from the butcher and supermarket typically have everything that would be used for stock removed already, stocks are becoming a thing of the past. I'm rarely willing to pay a couple of dollars for bones alone so I can make stock for anything. Occasionally I will use a leftover chicken carcass. It's really unfortunate, as I imagine a lot of it really does go to waste, ending up in dumpsters, when it could be rendered into perfectly good eats. The good thing about shrimp stock is that shrimp will often come with the shells in tact, so since you're going to toss them anyway, you have no good reason not to use them to make stock. This would presumably work for lobster or crab or something as well.

2) This was my first real bisque. This is a point of less interest since a bisque is basically a cream soup, which I've certainly made before, but it's distinctly not a chowder! I'm not sure whether "cream of…" soups are actually bisques. In that case, this point is a complete farce. In any case, this soup just sounds classy, looks great and was fun to make.

The only downside of this soup is that, upon reheating, the shrimp get a little tough. You could remedy this by not adding the shrimp to the soup until the last minute. There's still definitely a shrimpy flavor in the soup from the shrimp stock, but it's subtle, sort of sweet. The soup has a very rich, pleasing flavor and is not particularly overwhelmed by any single flavor, just a very nice harmony of the ingredients that went in. This, for me, is definitely something to be happy about.