fine corn soup

One might call this "cream of corn soup" or "smoky corn soup" or "corn and bacon soup" or any number of other things, and all of them would be somewhat correct, but none of them speak fully enough about what this soup really is...

sophisticated 1. worldly-wise; not naive; sophisticated travelers. 2. appealing to cultivated tastes: sophisticated music. 3. complex, intricate: a sophisticated electronic control system. 4. deceptive; misleading. 5. (and this is the important one) a huge pain in the ass, but worth it

this is what the soup looks like about midway through the process

You should only make this soup in the summer when the sweet corn is massively ripe. What follows is an excerpt from a letter I wrote about this soup last night:

Tonight I am making corn soup, a sophisticated/fussy one:

ten ears of corn, kernels cut off, cooked in chicken stock (I boiled the chicken yesterday), pureed, passed through a chinois

cobs: make more corn stock with the bare cobs; combine with above (one can alternately roast the cobs first)

In a big pot brown onion with hunks of bacon, various dried and/or fresh peppers, black peppercorns, whole coriander

deglaze the pot with some reserved chicken stock, then add corn liquid

bring to a boil, simmer and reduce (until desired consistency is reached)

pass everything through the chinois again, pass into another pot (lots of pot jockeying here)

finally infuse with heavy cream, thicken a tad more

serve and garnish with one cilantro leaf...

I make this soup once a summer, twice tops! It takes many hours for a couple quarts of soup...

Anyway, there it is, my secret corn soup recipe. It's nice to add shredded chicken to it or shrimp or both


One last thing, when you are reducing your soup and it starts to smell like an amazingly fresh corn tortilla due to the crust on the sides of the pot, you will know you're onto something.

Good eating.