Friday, September 2, 2011

Dreams of the Jolly Green Giant


Corn-on-the-cob means a summer’s barbeque.  Orville Redenbacher’s corn means being curled up on the couch watching a chic flick on a winter’s eve.  Creamed corn means the Jolly Green Giant package in the freezer, the one right next to the frozen Succotash.  But until last night, I had never used corn as the base ingredient for homemade soup. 



This week’s French Fridays with Dorie featured corn soup.  So I sent my erstwhile companion to the market armed with a copy of the recipe and instructions not to return home until he had secured all the ingredients in a fresh format.  I'm diligent in the kitchen and rarely take short-cuts.  For example, I don’t grab the Campbell Potato Soup can from the pantry, pour its contents into a pot, add some canned clams and call it “Clam Chowder” as so many restaurants do.  Fortunately, there is no reason to take any shortcuts with this recipe (unless you want to save some chopping and dicing time by purchasing Trader Joe’s Mirepoix). It is a simple, fresh and easy recipe that can be made quickly, even after a hard day’s night.



I can tell a good Italian restaurant from the cooking aromas that surround you upon entering.  Similarly, I can tell a good soup from the fragrance of the ingredients as they blend together during the cooking process.  This dish emits a panoply of wonderful fragrances, with the rosemary being predominant.  Such was this recipe’s allure that my two “sous chefs” were drawn from the first televised college football game of the year to investigate.  It's always a good sign when cooking aromas draw people to the kitchen, particularly during football season.



At first, I was worried the soup would be a little too thin for our preference, and it seemed that way while cooking in the pot even though I withheld about ¾ cup of the required water. However, I was immensely pleased with the final result after using my trusty immersion blender.  The soup had a chowder-like consistency with colorful bits and pieces of the red Jalapeño pepper, carrot, celery and red onion adding great visual contrast to the creamy yellow of the corn.  The interplay between the sweetness of the corn and the spice of the red Jalapeño pepper tickled my fancy and fit my mood for the evening-- sweet and spicy--and the crisp bacon garnishment added a nice counterpoint to the cool and silky crème fraiche.






This is a wonderful soup that stands on its own merit when prepared as Dorie suggests.  But, in my opinion, it can be turned into a fabulous seafood chowder by simply adding some fresh shrimp, lobster and/or crab (I wouldn’t add clams because they would not complement the flavors of the soup). 



I am eager to try this recipe again. Fortuitously, there is just enough left over for one bowl. Wonder which one of us will get lucky at lunch today....?

13 comments:

  1. LOL, if my husband was around to eat this one with me, I would have had to make a double batch for sure! As it is, I have enough to have a few bowls with different toppings so I can play around with them and see which ones I like best!

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  2. Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. So glad to visit you...you did a great job on the soup and I agree that it would be a great base for shrimp, lobster or crab. I had my soup for dinner tonight and added some cayenne pepper and the taste was much better...it needed that kick! I'm adding you to my google reader so I won't miss your next post!

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  3. Your end result soup looks fantastic, especially with all the garnishes! So pretty! Plus, I love the platter of ingredients photo. Thanks for commenting on my blog. I've added yours to my Google Reader and look forward to reading your future posts.

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  4. I love that the football fans got distracted by the aroma of this soup- that says it all. By the way this soup would make perfect tailgate food before a game on a cold morning;-)

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  5. Your soup looks fabulous!! Especially with that generous bacon garnish...so yummy!

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  6. Mmm.. I like the way you talk about the soup!! Yours look great with the colourful garnishes!

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  7. I can see that your soup is full of flavor...lovely garnishing too ! I shall make mine just like this the next time I make this soup again ! Slurp, slurp , slurp !

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  8. I really like all the garnish you have on your soup and I bet the jalapeno gave it just the right amount of heat. I just loved that this soup was so delicious and really took no time at all to make.

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  9. This was a fun soup - and the garnishes were truly what took it to the next level.
    Good luck with those leftovers...

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  10. Your bowl of soup looks so hearty! And pretty. I enjoyed this soup. I thought it would be too thin after pureeing. I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't. I even strained mine, but it was still thick enough. Yum!

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  11. I made it with clams and it did work out well! I have to agree with you on the smell. We had a contractor in the house while I was working on the soup and he must have asked me three times about it. Dorie's recipes are usually a feast for all the senses.

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  12. Lovely picture of your prepared ingredients... I can never seem to get that picture because I tend to chop and throw things into the pan as they are ready. Great photos and your soup looks great!

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  13. we said YES to the seafood and it was worth it. Agreed: simple enough for a weeknight. I forgot the chili peppers and after reading everyone's comments about loving the spice, i think we need to make some more before the summer corn is gone.

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