Fresh Sweet Corn Creamy Soup – Velvety Smooth

Have you thought about how your future will unfold? Really imagined how you expect or wish things to turn out? Having just read “Golden thoughts of graceful aging” by Heather O’Neill , I realized that I have a great deal more imagining to attend to. Heather’s musings on growing old include visions of herself dressed to shock, ready to espouse the wackiest opinions, an eccentric slob around the house producing brilliant work until the very end. As The Friday Voice in the Montreal Gazette, O’Neill’s column is worthy of serious attention.

As my imagination on these aging matters begins to blossom, I’m picturing myself turning out a bit like my mom.  (Aren’t we all destined for that?) I try to emulate her in some of her skills. Her ease with food prep didn’t get passed on to jittery me, but I intend to pass on some of her excellent recipes, starting with today’s Fresh Sweet Corn Creamy Soup.

Fresh Sweet Corn Creamy Soup

• 1 T butter
• 1 c onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 6 stalks celery, peeled to remove large strings and diced
• 6 corn on the cob, steamed, kernels cut off (4 cups), cobs preserved
• 1 potato, diced
• 4 c chicken broth (or 1/2 chicken, 1/2 seafood broth)
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1/2 t thyme, chopped (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 T chives, chopped, as garnish
• 1 c lobster or crab, chopped (optional)

Steam husked corn in 1 1/2 cups of water for about 6 minutes. Remove corn to cool. Preserve water and add to soup along with chicken stock after straining to remove any stray silky threads. Cut the kernels off the cob when cool enough to handle. I used the Pampered Chef kernel cutter, but you can also use a knife.

Use a covered pot to cook onions and celery and garlic in melted butter on medium, until translucent, but not brown. Stir occasionally.

Add cobs, potato, chicken stock and reserved corn cooking water to the onions. Cook for 15 minutes. Add corn kernels, cooking for 5 more minutes, then remove the cobs before blending on high until creamy smooth. Simmer for 5 minutes with seafood (optional), thyme and evaporated milk.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chives. Close your eyes and pretend you are in a fancy restaurant. You will be deceived.

Fresh Sweet Corn Soup Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• If you enjoy Jittery Cook, please subscribe so that you will get each new post directly by email.
• Melanie Miller is a Tupperware saleslady with a terrific Australian accent and a science background. She was on the team tha t created Advil. While listening attentively to her spiel, I was struck by the information she provided on microwave cooking. Is it just me, or does everyone tend to simply enter the time and press start? According to Melanie, the power level is super important. We should never microwave above 70 or 80%, never above 30% to defrost. Microwave cooking is energy given to water molecules. If the power is too high, the water molecules evaporate, and the food dries out. We want the water to simply heat the food. Contact Melanie, 514-426-8644 to see what Tupperware 2012 has to offer.
• This soup can be frozen. However, when I reheated the frozen soup on “high” in the microwave, the texture was thin and the flavour was weak. You need to reheat it slowly —defrost at 30 percent (power level 3) until no longer frozen solid, then reheat at 70 or 80% (power level 7 or 8). The amount of time this takes depends upon the quantity being defrosted. You should be able to adjust the power level on your microwave by pressing the button or turning the knob repeatedly until it gets to the right number.