Chilled Cucumber Bisque Recipes

Steps:

• Blend together cucumbers, zucchini, green pepper, onion, mayonnaise, sour cream or plain yogurt, raspberry vinegar, dill weed, salt, and lemon pepper until smooth in blender size batches.
• Chill for 2 hours.
• Garnish with fresh nasturtiums (optional), and small stalks from celery hearts.

Steps:

• Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add cucumbers and potato; stir 1 minute. Add broth, dill sprigs, and 1 teaspoon salt. Increase heat and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cucumbers and potato are tender, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Working in batches, puree soup in processor until smooth. Return to pot. Cool 15 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 cup crème fraîche and 4 tablespoons minced dill. Cover and chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.) Taste soup, adding more salt if desired. Ladle soup into 6 bowls. Place dollop of crème fraîche in center of each bowl; sprinkle with smoked salmon and remaining 2 tablespoons minced dill.

Steps:

• Peel cucumbers and cut them in half, scraping out seeds. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and let them stand 30 minutes. Drain excess water.
• Chop the cucumbers coarsely and put the pieces in the blender along with scallions, dill, lemon juice, buttermilk, and yogurt. Blend at high speed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill well before serving.

Steps:

• In a 3 qt saucepan, melt margarine over med-high heat. Stir in onion + celery & cook till onion is tender. Stir in bouillon granules + paprika & mix well.
• Add fish stock, milk, salt & bay leaf. Reduce heat to low & simmer 15 minute.
• Add half-and-half & bring soup back to a slightly rolling boil.
• Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tbsp water or fish stock & stir into the soup. Cook till thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. (See NOTE #1).
• Stir in shrimp, sherry, lemon juice + hot pepper sauce (or Tobasco) to taste pref & allow to cool.
• Cover, refrigerate overnite & serve soup chilled as needed.
• NOTE #1: Altho not part of the recipe, I see the ideal bisque as mostly free of food solids except for the starring seafood, so I will prob opt to lightly puree the soup when removed from the heat in Step #4. Additionally, I see this soup garnished w/freshly snipped chives + 2-3 whole baby shrimp to add color & a finishing touch.
• NOTE #2: As orig written, the recipe called for 1 tsp *Shrimp Base* which was not found in the Zaar data base, but I googled it to discover it is basically a highly-concentrated shrimp stock. If available for you, use it in place of the bouillon granules which I listed in its place.