Lobster Soup

I had an indulgent lobster dinner the night before, but sadly (and shockingly) I couldn't finish it all. As I was brainstorming about what to do with the pile of shells and claws that were left, soup popped into my head. I'd never made a seafood soup before, but I figured it couldn't be that difficult. The soup stock consisted of the basics - onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns, and a bay leaf - as well as the leftover lobster shells and bodies with the gills and most of the tomalley and roe removed. The stock was excellent, not fishy at all, and the perfect base for my "leftover" meal. I threw in some seafood, potatoes, and saffron and served it with some crusty bread and butter. I'm definitely making this again, especially when I go to Maine and there are more lobster shells and bodies than I could possibly ever use.


HOW TO:

Boil the above stock ingredients for a few hours, until the broth is richly flavored.

Soak a pinch of saffron threads for 20 minutes. Strain stock into a separate pot, add the saffron water, and boil halved yukon gold potatoes until just tender. Add the lobster claw and any additional seafood (I used scallops, rock shrimp, and cod). Cook until everything is just done, in this case 3 minutes or so. Garnish with parsley and serve hot with bread for dipping.