Move over clam chowder: it's seafood bisque!

A Facebook friend shared that she had just made this seafood bisque, and since I was casting about for easy meals to cook this weekend that would add variety to our menus, we stopped by the grocery store after church to pick up the ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 cup shrimp (the recipe called for baby shrimp, but we couldn't find any, so I just took the tails off and chopped up some small cocktail shrimp)
1 cup crab/ lobster/ scallop meat (an 8 oz packet of the imitation stuff was a rounded cup)
1/2 cup of chopped celery and carrot all together (it gets blended so you/your partner won't notice)
butter, flour, and garlic to make a roux (I skipped the green onion, because we never use it before it goes bad)
2.5 cups whole milk (save the rest of the quart for hot chocolate or cream of wheat) 
1 cup heavy whipping cream (thankfully there is no whipping involved)
1 tbsp of tomato paste (as tiny as those little cans are, you will have a lot left over)
Old Bay, bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste

I found that this recipe required constant hands-on activity, chopping or measuring one thing while something else cooked. However, the 30-minute preparation time was accurate for producing 4 servings of this slightly off-white bisque, which I served with green salad and oyster crackers (remember those?).

Now, you may be asking yourself, What is the difference between a bisque and a chowder? I had the same question! This MasterClass article taught me that a bisque is a blended, creamier soup, while chowder tends to be thinner and chunkier. This one calls for a hand blender (I used a stand blender), then adding in the seafood, so in terms of consistency, it seems to land somewhere in the middle. And it's easier to prepare than a traditional bisque, because it uses spices rather than having to cook down the seafood shells. Either way, we enjoyed it very much and look forward to making it again before the weather warms up for good.

Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this recipe, you might want to try other seafood adventures, including seafood casserole, salmon patties, or shrimp couscous (a staple in our rotation).