Gordon Ramsay Seafood Bisque

Gordon Ramsay’s seafood bisque is a proper crowd-feeder, made with mussels, monkfish and red mullet in a rich saffron and cayenne broth, deglazed with brandy, reduced with white wine and strained silky smooth. It serves 10 and comes from the Cooking for a Crowd chapter of Make It Easy.

This is his actual published bisque, the recipe I adapted for our lobster bisque using the same base technique. The original uses three different types of seafood because each one adds something the others can’t. The mussels give the broth a briny intensity, the monkfish holds its shape and adds meaty chunks, and the red mullet brings a sweeter, more delicate flavour.

The technique is classic bisque: sauté aromatics with star anise, saffron and cayenne, deglaze with brandy, reduce wine to a syrup, then simmer with fish stock for a full hour before blending and passing through a fine chinois. The potatoes cook separately with saffron and go in at the end with the fish. Ramsay builds the broth and the protein as two separate elements that come together in the bowl.

Gordon Ramsay Seafood Bisque

Recipe by Sophie LaneCourse: Soup, Starter

Servings

10

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Calories

350

kcal

Total time

105

minutes

Difficulty

Intermediate

Seafood bisque from the Cooking for a Crowd chapter of Gordon Ramsay’s Make It Easy. Mussels, monkfish and red mullet in a saffron, cayenne and star anise broth, deglazed with brandy, reduced with white wine and strained smooth through a chinois. Saffron potatoes and poached fish added at the end. Serves 10.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 2 shallots, finely chopped

• 2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and finely sliced

• 4 celery sticks, sliced

• 2 carrots, chopped

• 2 star anise

• 2 tsp cayenne pepper

• Pinch of saffron threads

• 6 beef tomatoes, deseeded and chopped

• 100ml brandy

• 500ml white wine

• 3 litres fish stock

• 1kg fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded

• 5 large potatoes, peeled and diced

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 500g monkfish fillets, cut into chunks

• 500g red mullet fillets, cut into 3cm pieces

Directions

• Build the bisque base: Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots, fennel, celery, carrots, star anise, cayenne and saffron. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes.
• Deglaze and reduce: Add the tomatoes, lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add the brandy and let it bubble to reduce. Pour in the wine and cook until reduced to a syrupy consistency.
• Simmer: Stir in the fish stock, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour.
• Cook the potatoes: Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in salted water with a few saffron threads for about 10 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside.
• Blend and strain: Blend the soup until smooth using a stick blender. Pass through a fine chinois or sieve into a clean pan and set aside.
• Cook the mussels: Heat a ladleful of the strained bisque in a large pan. Add the mussels, cover tightly and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until they open. Discard any that stay closed.
• Poach the fish: Gently poach the monkfish and red mullet in another ladleful of bisque in a shallow pan for 2 to 3 minutes until just cooked through.
• Bring it together: Add the saffron potatoes to the main pan of bisque and reheat gently. Add the poached fish and mussels. Check the seasoning. Ladle into warm bowls and serve with crusty bread.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay use three types of seafood?

Each one does a different job. The mussels release a briny, mineral intensity into the broth. The monkfish is dense and meaty, so it holds its shape and gives you something to bite into. The red mullet is sweeter and more delicate.

Using all three means every spoonful tastes different. A single-fish bisque is one-dimensional by comparison.

Can you make this with crab?

Yes. Ramsay serves a Lobster and Cornish Crab Bisque at the Savoy Grill which uses crab bodies crushed with a mallet alongside lobster heads. The shells roast in olive oil before the vegetables go in, then the same brandy, wine and stock technique applies.

For a home version, replace the monkfish with 500g fresh crab meat and add the crab shells to the base when sautéing the aromatics. The shells add flavour during the hour-long simmer, then get strained out.

Can you scale this down for 4 people?

Halve everything. Use 1 shallot, 1 fennel bulb, 2 celery sticks, 1 carrot, 1 star anise, 1 tsp cayenne. 50ml brandy, 250ml wine, 1.5 litres stock. 500g mussels, 250g monkfish, 250g red mullet, 2 to 3 potatoes.

The cooking times stay the same. The hour simmer is about extraction, not volume.

How is this different from the lobster bisque?

Our lobster bisque uses this same base technique but adapts it for lobster. The lobster version sautés the shells with the aromatics for deeper extraction, uses 1 litre of stock instead of 3, and serves 4.

This seafood version is the original from the cookbook. Bigger batch, more variety of fish, and the saffron potatoes make it more of a complete meal.

Can you use prawns instead of red mullet?

Yes. Raw king prawns work well and they’re easier to find than red mullet at most UK fishmongers. Use them shell on and add in the last 3 minutes with the monkfish. The shells add flavour to the poaching liquid.

For a dinner party, serve this bisque as a starter before a salmon wellington as the main. Both feel special without needing restaurant skills.