A Silky Celebration of the Season

By Dara O’Brien
Creative Director, Lake Isle Press

Another summer is on its way out; but time remains to sneak in one more ode to corn. For those yet-to-be-converted corn enthusiasts, stay with me for this one. Perhaps I can sway you with a recipe for liquid corn, AKA corn soup.

On the back cover of his book “Latin Evolution,” published by Lake Isle Press, Jose Garces features a picture of his Sweet Corn Soup. It looks divine. It’s also a relatively simple recipe without a lot of ingredients. Sold.

Jose’s recipe pairs the soup with two items that look amazing, a mushroom quesadilla and caviar crème fraîche, but my focus was on the soup only, which I am happy to tell you is good. Very good. This soup is so smooth and so light, you taste it but can barely feel it on your tongue. If velvet were edible and came in a liquid form that tasted like corn it would be this.

I thought the soup would be a breeze to make, and for the most part, it was. You need to give it some time, since it calls for a two-step process: first you make corn stock (which will take two hours, mostly unattended), then simmer that stock with corn kernels, garlic, onion, saffron and cream and finish it off with a tablespoon of sugar. I would imagine you could replace the corn stock with a veggie one instead, store-bought to make it easier, but I wanted optimum corn taste so I happily made corn stock, which I prepared the day before making the soup.

I didn’t follow Jose’s stock recipe to the letter, but kept to the spirit of it. I had stashed four corn cobs in my freezer a few weeks prior, so I used them along with four fresh ones I stripped for the soup (the recipe calls for three, but I upped the ante). I had a lot of leek greens and onion scraps in my freezer, so I added them to the pot with garlic and corn cobs. At the end of two hours I had a rich stock.

I followed the soup recipe closely. In addition to adding kernels from one more ear of corn, I used a little more butter for the onions, and since I ran short on heavy cream I supplemented it with ¼ cup of milk. After blending, there were more corn solids than I expected, and I had to press out the liquid; I used a strainer, but a food mill would have been a better way to go. Strainer or food mill, the silkiness of the finished soup makes it more than worthwhile.

I went through a phase of serving soup shots at dinner parties. My favorite was cream of parsnip, but I served cream of asparagus shots and sweet potato shots as well. I love them and they’re fun for guests, but when I simplified my dinner parties (which were complicated affairs) I stopped serving them. This soup, however, would make such silky smooth little shooters I think I need to reconsider.

Photo from Latin Evolution by Jose Garces with April White: Sweet Corn Soup with Quesadilla and Caviar Crème Fraîche | Tina Rupp

SWEET CORN SOUP RECIPE

Click here for printable recipe.
Yields 4 cups

INGREDIENTS
2 cups chopped Spanish onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon saffron
3 ears corn, kernels removed from cob
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 cups corn stock
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

PREPARATION

In a saucepan over low heat, sweat onions and garlic in butter until translucent. Add saffron and sweat until bright yellow. Add corn kernels and season with salt. Sauté corn until soft. Add corn stock and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil over high heat once again. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree soup in a blender and strain through a chinois. Season with sugar.

CORN STOCK

Yields 4 cups

INGREDIENTS

8 chopped corn cobs, kernels removed and reserved for other use
8 cups chopped Spanish onion
5 cloves garlic, chopped
8 cups water

PREPARATION

In a stockpot, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for two hours, skimming any foam that rises to the top. Strain through a chinois. Corn stock can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to 3 months.

Recipes from “Latin Evolution” by Jose Garces, Lake Isle Press, 2008