900g of crabs
2oz butter
50g onion, chopped
50g carrot, chopped
50g celery, chopped
1 fresh or dried bay leaf
2 tablespoon Cognac
4 tomatoes
1 teaspoon tomato puree
90ml dry white wine
1 sprig of fresh tarragon
3 pt fish stock
60ml double cream
Pinch of cayenne pepper
¼ juice of lemon
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil, drop in the crabs and bring them back to the boil and cook for 2 minutes.

Strain and let the crabs cool a little, then roughly break the crabs with a large knife or kitchen hammer.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan and add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and the bay leaf and cook without browning. Add the crabs and the cognac and boil for a further 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, wine, tarragon and stock, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the claw shells from the saucepan and liquidize the soup, in batches, in a food processor. Process in short bursts until the shell has broken into small pieces about the size of a finger nail (not pureed).

Strain the soup pushing as much liquid through as possible with the back of a ladle or spoon. You will need to strain the soup one more time through a fine strainer before returning to the heat.

Bring to the boil, add the cream, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, salt and black pepper, and reduce a little for 2-3 minutes.

To serve - with fresh crusty bread.

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