Page: 56
Date Cooked: July 21, 2011
I love the time of the year where you walk into the produce section and see that large table full of corn. There are a number of items that make me think of summer and ears of corn happen to be one of them. With the inspiration of corn in mind, I immediately decided that this was the recipe to make. I don't think Waxman has many "purely" vegetarian recipes in this book, but this is one of them. Heck if you replace the butter and leave out the heavy cream - it's even vegan friendly.
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| Ingredients: Corn, dried red chile, parsley, garlic, sweet onion, butter, cilantro, saffron, heavy cream, salt, and pepper |
The soup stock was purely corn. It consisted of the corncobs, the dried red chile, parsley, and garlic. I placed all these items into a pot with some water and let it simmer for a few hours. After it was done, I strained the stock and placed it on a side.
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| Corn stock - corn cobs, dried red chile, parsley, and garlic. |
With the stock done and out of the way, I proceeded to focus on the other components of the soup. I thinly sliced the onion and cooked it with half the corn kernels and some butter just until the onions were tender. I placed all the stock (except for about 1/2 cup) into the pan with the corn and onions. Finally, I added cilantro and let the whole thing simmer.
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| Left: Onions, corn, and butter Right: Onions, corn, corn stock, and cilantro simmering |
While the soup simmered, I combined the reserved 1/2 cup of corn stock and a few saffron threads into a small pan and it simmered for a few minutes. I then removed it from the heat and let it cool completely. With the aid of an electric mixer, I beat the heavy cream until soft peaks were visible. Then on a lower setting, I slowly drizzled the saffron stock into the cream mixture. The saffron cream was then placed in the fridge.
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| From Left to Right: 1.Saffron stock 2.Heavy cream + saffron stock 3.Saffron cream |
I put the remaining corn kernels and some butter in a skillet to cook over medium-low heat. The kernels were seasoned with salt and pepper.
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| Corn kernels cooking on low heat |
Finally, I pureed the soup with an immersion blender and strained it into a clean saucepan. The cooked corn was added to the soup and the entire thing was brought to simmer and seasoned with additional salt and pepper. I placed the soup into a bowl and topped it with the saffron cream.
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| Corn Soup with Saffron |
The verdict...it was good...not great, but good. The recipe took some time and had I made the stock in advance the whole thing may not have felt soo tedious. Having said that, I have to acknowledge the fact that I think the corn stock is THE reason why the corn flavor is soo intense in the soup. You consistently taste corn and not only that but multiple dimensions of corn flavor. Layer one is the corn stock. Layer two is the soup itself. And layer 3 are the additional cooked kernels of corn in the soup. It just keeps coming back to you and your taste buds. When I ate the leftover soup the following day, I thought the flavors accentuated even further.
What about the saffron cream, you ask? Well that was pretty amazing! Not sure how you can go wrong with heavy cream and a saffron infused stock. For me, saffron immediately brings to mind Indian cooking, so I somewhat felt that the soup was a strange infusion of Southwest America + India. But it worked.
All in all, it felt a bit tedious. I'm not sure if I would make the recipe again in its precise form...but it definitely gave me a few good ideas.
Enjoy!
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