On Labor Day, a bunch of us from the restaurant went to Sycamore Farms.
We toured the land on a tractor.
Our guide, Kevin, let me drive the tractor. Everyone on board survived.
Just barely.
We picked corn.
That’s Chef Carmen*.
We picked tomatoes.
Lots of tomatoes.
We cooked together.
We ate together.
Then I went home and turned our torn-from-the-stalk corn into soup.
* A special thank you to Krishna Kinsey, Union Square cook and one of the best pasta makers I know, for the photo of Chef.
Farm-fresh corn soup
Improvised after consulting David Lebovitz’s recipe for fresh corn soup and Dorie Greenspan’s for summer corn soup in Bon Appétit.
Makes 8 cups
– 6 ears of really fresh corn, shucked (I like the microwave method)
– 6 C water
– 2 T olive oil
– 1 large onion, chopped (approximately 1 C)
– 2 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 red poblano pepper, seeded and finely chopped (approximately 1/2 C)
– 2 t hot paprika, plus extra for garnish
– 1 C cream
– 1 T salt
– 1/4 C chopped parsley for garnish
Slice. Slice the corn off the cob into a large bowl. This should yield about 6 cups total. Reserve the naked cobs.
Boil. Cut the reserved cobs into 3 – 4 pieces. Bring water and cobs to a boil in a pot. Lower heat, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 30 minutes to extract the flavor from the cobs. Remove the cobs. Some of the liquid will evaporate, so you should be left with about 4 cups of corn stock.
Saute. In the meantime, in a larger pot (the one you plan to make the soup in), heat the oil and saute the onion over medium heat until soft and translucent, but not browned, 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic, pepper, and paprika, continuing to saute for another 5 minutes until the pepper starts to soften. Stir in 4 cups of corn kernels, reserving the remaining 2 cups.
Simmer. Pour the corn stock over the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in the cream.
Puree. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is as smooth as possible. If you want the soup to be perfectly smooth, strain it, pressing hard on the solids, but it will be a bit on the thin side. I didn’t bother straining.
Serve. Divide the soup among bowls, garnishing with corn kernels, parsley, and a sprinkle of paprika.
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