Gourmet Main Dishes: Shrimp Bisque {and} Salt Crusted Roast Beef with Mushrooms

Gourmet Main Dishes:

Shrimp Bisque {and}

Salt-Crusted Eye-of-Round with Madeira Mushrooms

For my mother's birthday weekend, my sister-in-law Dana created an amazing dinner with shrimp bisque, salt-crusted eye-of-round with madeira mushrooms, fall harvest quinoa with butternut squash, spinach gratin, topped baked potatoes, thyme popovers, orange Sunshine State cake, and pumpkin apple crisp with whipped cream. Did I say it was amazing?  Amazing! 

Here are the recipes and pictures for the two main dishes...  I'll do the side dishes and the desserts in separate posts.

Shrimp Bisque

 

• 2 pounds peeled shrimp (any size)
• 1 bunch leeks, thoroughly washed and sliced
• 3 large onions, chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 bunch celery, chopped
• 3 tablespoons dried dill
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme
• 1 quart light cream
• 1 stick salted butter
• 1/2 cup or more flour
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes

Homemade croutons

Saute shrimp until cooked through; remove from pan. Saute onions, celery, and garlic until translucent.  Add leeks, dill, and thyme and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.  Remove from pan.  Reduce heat to low and add butter to pan.  Once butter is melted, add flour and whisk until it is thoroughly combined with butter.  Cook about a minute longer.  Add cream and increase heat, whisking until smooth.  Add crushed tomatoes and whisk thoroughly until combined.  Add shrimp and vegetable mixture and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Puree soup in a food processor or in pot with immersion blender.  Serve in crock pot.  Optional: top with croutons and sour cream. 

Salt-Crusted Eye-of-Round with Madeira Mushrooms

6 pounds kosher salt
3 tablespoons dried thyme
3 tablespoons cracked black pepper
1 cup egg whites (from about 7 large eggs)
1 5-pound beef eye-of-round, trimmed of fat and sinew
2 packages sliced cremini (baby portabella) mushrooms
1/4 cup Madeira wine

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the salt, thyme and pepper. In another large bowl, whisk the egg whites just until frothy. Stir into the salt mixture until it looks like wet sand.  In a large roasting pan, place a 1/2-inch-thick layer of salt mixture. Place the meat on the salt and cover with the remaining salt mixture, patting it firmly around the meat. Roast for 45 minutes.  Remove the meat from the oven and let rest in its crust for 10 minutes. While meat rests, prepare mushrooms.  Saute mushrooms in olive oil until tender; add wine.  Saute a few minutes longer, until wine mostly evaporates and the mushrooms create a gravy-like sauce from their liquid and the reduced wine.  Crack the crust and remove the meat, brushing off any salt. Loosely cover with foil and let rest for another 10 minutes. 

Madeira Mushroom Topping

Happy 74th birthday to my Mom!

Dana with my mom Mary, the birthday girl

I wrote this post four years ago for Mom's birthday...

Happy Birthday to My Dear Mom, Mary Quarrier

The entire weekend in pictures:

• To Grandmother's House (And a Petting Zoo) We Go

• Five Generations

• Apple Picking, Fritters, and Goofy Gourds at Larriland Farm

• Gourmet Main Dishes: Shrimp Bisque {and} Salt Crusted Roast Beef with Mushrooms

• Beauty and Diversity on an Autumn Sunday in Maryland

• Love Lifted Me, and a Few More Memories of Maryland

  
  

  
  

Food on Fridays

Raising Homemakers 

Whole-Hearted Home