I had some leftover scallops from my sous vide preserved lemon scallops, and I had saved the liquid from the bag and decided to make shellfish soup with it.
If you didn’t have leftover scallop liquid, I think this soup benefits from some preserved lemons. In place of salting, I use Better Than Bouillon Lobster Base, which deepens the seafood flavor.
The scallops and clams I bought at a local grocery store, and they’re not hatefully expensive frozen. The scallops came from Great Alaska Seafood. The shrimp I had leftover from a party, it’s about half a pound of all of the seafoods. I’ve made this many times and basically I just stock up on one seafood or another until I have enough to make it. I’ve made it with white fish, whole frozen crawdads, leftover crawdad meat, whatever. The base is what stays the same.
Saute 3/4 cup diced onions and 4 cloves crushed garlic in butter. I like the caramel note that brown butter ghee adds. I’ve also used leeks in place of the onions and that is very nice.
Add 1 cup celery and saute for a minute.
Add liquid. The stock cubes are half seafood stock (Similar to how I made the stock for this Lobster Bisque) and half chicken bone broth. The reason I add the chicken bone broth instead of using just straight seafood stock is because the chicken stock has a much higher amount of collagen, which contributes hugely to the texture of the liquid. Add 1/4 cup of dry sherry and 16 ounces beer (I used Coors Banquet). You could use water but beer makes it taste better. I also added two tablespoons of the Better than Bullion and the liquid and preserved lemons from the sous vide scallops. If you don’t have that, just add several preserved lemons or 4 tablespoons lemon juice.
Cook the liquid until the stock cubes are melted. Add the frozen mussels and clams and bring to a boil.
Add the shrimp and stir. I cut the shrimp in half because they were relatively large.
Add the scallops and stir (I quartered the scallops…they were huge!)
Bring everything just to a quick boil and shut down.
I served with a slice of Italian Bread. The whole family enjoyed this very much, it fed all four of us plus two generous portions for leftover lunch (co-workers were madly jealous!)
Shellfish Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons brown butter ghee
- ¾ cup onions diced
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 cup celery diced
- 12 ounces beer
- 3 shellfish stock cubes
- 3 chicken bone broth cubes
- ¼ cup dry sherry
- 2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Lobster Base
- ½ pound frozen mussels with shells
- ½ pound frozen clams with shells
- ½ pound peeled shrimp chopped
- ½ pound scallops
- 3/4 cup reserved liquid from sous vide scallops or 3 preserved lemon pieces
Instructions
- Brown the onions and garlic in brown butter ghee until slightly translucent. Add celery and cook for a minute. Add beer, stock cubes, sherry and Lobster base and cook until stock cubes are melted. Add mussels and clams and cook until opened. Add shrimp and stir in. Add scallops. Bring to a quick boil and serve.
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