Kk'S Cream Of Crab Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

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)

Preparation

Gently remove cartilage from crab meat.
Melt butter in a 2-3 quart sauce pan.
Add the onion and cook 3-4 minutes - until translucent.
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).
Off the heat, stir in chicken broth and sherry, return to the heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
Add salt, pepper, milk and cream, then stir in Tabasco, cayenne and sugar.
Use a little of the liquid to thin the tomato paste and stir it back into the soup.
Cook on med-low heat until thickened, but do not let it boil.
Taste it, and when the cream base is cooked and seasoned to your liking, add the crab.
Heat gently another 5 minutes and serve.
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.
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.