Kk's Cream Of Crab Soup

Total Time: 35 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 lb backfin crab meat
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons onions, chopped very fine
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth (don't use a heavy stock)
• 1/2 cup dry sherry (very dry sherry should be pale yellow in color)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 -9 dashes tabasco sauce
• 8 -9 dashes of a less vinegary hot sauce (such as texas pete's or frank's)
• 1 pinch cayenne (just a very light shake!)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (use concentrated, it comes in a tube)

Recipe

• 1 gently remove cartilage from crab meat.
• 2 melt butter in a 2-3 quart sauce pan.
• 3 add the onion and cook 3-4 minutes - until translucent.
• 4 blend in flour and cook as a roux on medium-low heat until the flour-butter mixture "loosens", which indicates the flour is cooked (about 5 minutes).
• 5 off the heat, stir in chicken broth and sherry, return to the heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
• 6 add salt, pepper, milk and cream, then stir in tabasco, cayenne and sugar.
• 7 use a little of the liquid to thin the tomato paste and stir it back into the soup.
• 8 cook on med-low heat until thickened, but do not let it boil.
• 9 taste it, and when the cream base is cooked and seasoned to your liking, add the crab.
• 10 heat gently another 5 minutes and serve.
• 11 serving suggestion: make a lightly sweetened whipped cream to dollop on top and serve with a small pitcher of the sherry to add at the table.
• 12 a small amount of fresh chopped parsley around the edge of a soup plate is attractive, but don't use too much because you don't want to affect the flavor of the soup.