The first challenge was buying smoked mackerel. I headed to the Queen Victoria Markets and made an inquiry to which the guy responded - "We've got this fresh smoked trout, buy this, yes, you're going to buy this, I'll bag it up for you". I agreed with seemingly no other option and handed over my life savings.
Next challenge was buying prawn shells. I thought one of the seafood vendors might sell them....surely they peel prawns to sell and I can't be the first person that's asked for them. Alas, no deal, so I had to spend my future life savings on a bucket load of prawns.
I forgot to buy horseradish so the potted mackerel, now potted trout, was a mix of the trout, creme fraiche, mayonnaise and lemon juice. I couldn't find chives but did find awesome looking garlic shoots. They were incredible and really made an impact. I served it with some green salad leaves and bread. It was a hit with the household.
I think I did alright with my bisque, the flavour was there but I did unfortunately break the cream I was simmering through at the end. Disappointingly I didn't really want to eat it when it came time because of all the dicking around and handling of the prawns. The prawns got pretty gross when I was peeling them and it's the coldest my hands have ever been so I just started to chop them up to include almost whole in the bisque and shoved the rest in the freezer to forget about.
The bisque was just a matter of frying off onions in butter with the prawn shells and flour then adding tomatoes, both whole and paste, some stock and then simmering it for a while. It was pretty rich at this point then, after straining it, I made it even richer with the addition of some cream and brandy.
I'm glad I tried. But....pizza would have been good.
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