It is high summer, and sweet corn has appeared in the farmer's market. We always buy a dozen ears of corn on Saturday. We eat a couple of ears, put the rest in the refrigerator overnight and then I cut the kernels off and put them into quart or pint containers. Sometimes I freeze the extra, sometimes not. Early season corn is smaller (and more tender) than later season corn. So last week, the dozen ears of corn yielded a couple of ears for us on Saturday, then about 5-1/2 cups off the cob: 4 cups for the soup below (taken from the NYT in this vegan version) and the rest for corn salad later in the week. Let's hear it for corn season!
The ingredients:
4 cups of corn kernels;
1/2 cup chopped onion;
1 tablespoon smushed garlic;
1-1/2 teaspoon grated ginger;
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes;
about 1/2 cup diced potatoes (I used yukon gold, red would be fine);
2 tablespoons olive oil;
1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable better than bouillon plus 3 cups of water (or 3 cups of veggie stock);
1 can regular (not light) coconut milk; and
some salt (not shown)
I started by dicing the onion and the potatoes and smushing the garlic and grating the ginger. I already had the corn.
Some people might cut kernels off uncooked ears of corn. Some people might use high quality frozen corn (beware of starchy frozen corn).
Then I put the olive oil in a big dutch oven over medium heat. First I added the onion, garlic, ginger and pepper flakes. I cooked them for maybe 4 minutes.
Then I added the corn, and I cooked the whole mixture for another 4 or 5 minutes.
Next I added the potatoes and stirred them around. I added the better than bouillon next and stirred it in. It is easier to add the paste to the stuff in the pot than to try to dissolve it in the water.
After stirring the paste in, I added the water.
Next - the coconut milk.
I heated the soup gently so that the coconut milk solids would melt. I tasted the soup, and it needed salt so I added some.
I used the immersion blender to break the soup down some. Be mindful that an immersion blender will not pulverize potato skins. Okay by me. And the soup was not completely smooth. Fine.
If completely smooth is the goal, you will probably need to use a blender and blend the soup in batches.
On the table. We garnished with chopped scallion greens and some chili crisp, which is a hot concoction of red pepper flakes and sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil. The recipe for chili crisp is somewhere on the blog.
The chili crisp added some heat and the scallion greens added some color. The soup was very good. We also had BLT sandwiches, with local tomatoes and local lettuce and local bacon. Plus some berries and yogurt.
Nothing like high summer produce.
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