#Grandmaweek... Because Life is Full of Unexpected Surprises
Corn. It’s literally everywhere right now and couldn’t be cheaper. $0.50 a cob is pretty standard, so I picked up, almost literally, a bushel at the Union Square Farmer’s Market during #cornweek last week.
What a good decision and conveniently I received an email from Tasting Table right after I got home touting the virtues of chilled corn soup. What better way to showcase the natural flavors of August gold!
This one goes out to my grandma, who, at 80+ years, has recently taken up a second career as an NSA operative and exhibits greater skills in Internet monitoring than any other member of our family. She, along with my grandfather, also happens to have a very healthy, if somewhat unnatural, obsession with “Brentwood corn,” which lamentably is 3,000 miles away from me in New York. Luckily local corn from the GrowNYC Farmer's Market makes for a nice, if possibly slightly inadequate, substitute.
The star of this is dish is the subversive little corn pickles (pictured below because, as I discovered, soup is difficult to photograph in a lunch box in an appealing way). Just like grandma, they’re a much more clever addition than you’d expect! They impart pretty much all of the flavor and take 10 minutes to prep. My new favorite summer treat! Don’t even think about skipping them.
I'll admit, this is a pretty aggressive recipe for a weeknight because it requires quite a bit of time to simmer, but all in you ought to be able get everything done in around an hour and 30 minutes before you chill it overnight.
“Grandma’s Sneaky Corn Pickles" in Chilled Corn Soup
Makes 6 servings
For the corn pickles:
- 2 corncobs, kernels removed
- 1 small shallot, julienned
- 1 jalapeno pepper thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, very thinly sliced
- ½ cup white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoons crushed coriander seeds
- 1 cup water
For the soup:
- 6 corncobs, kernels removed and save the cobs
- 4 black peppercorns
- 3 parsley stems
- 3 thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 10 cups water
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
- Kosher salt, to taste
Let’s start by removing the corn kernels from the cobs. Either go out and buy the most ingenious and insanely useful (not to mention cute) kitchen tool I own, the Kuhn Corn Twister, or take the slightly more hazardous approach of slicing the kernels off the cob with a chef’s knife. Seriously, I can’t recommend that Corn Twister enough though. It works alarmingly well for something that I bought for my boyfriend as a joke. And if you have lazy knife skills like me (or him), it eliminates the risk of cutting your hand off.
Go ahead and prep all of the corncobs for the pickles and the soup at once and put your kernels in a large bowl for later. Make sure you keep 6 of the stripped corncobs to make the soup stock in a second.
I’m switching it up and will have you start the recipe by creating the soup because making the pickles gives you something to do while the stock you're about to make is simmering.
First off, we’re going to create corn stock, so get out a large stockpot and place the 6 stripped corn cobs in it, along with the peppercorns, the parsley stems, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and all 10 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer, partially covered, for about 45 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by about half.
This is when you should capitalize on downtime to make the pickles, so, let’s switch gears.
Get a 1-quart heatproof mason jar out. Combine the corn kernels, shallot*, jalapeno, and garlic in it making sure there is plenty of room to add the pickling liquid.
*(To clarify cutting techniques for the shallots, you may not know what julienne means because I certainly did not. The answer to that is to cut the shallot into long spears. Do so by peeling the shallot, slicing it in half vertically and then continuing to create vertical cuts. The shallots natural divisions will aid you in creating nice spears.)
Now in a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, salt, sugar, and coriander seeds (which you should crush by rolling them between your palms as you add them to the pan). Bring the mixture to a boil and then pour it into the full Mason jar along with the cup of water. Seal and wipe the lid and let this cool outside the fridge for a while. Then put it in the fridge and let it refrigerate at least overnight. The pickles will keep for about a month according to Tasting Table. If you can keep yourself from eating them that long...
Back to the soup, which should be done with the stock creation phase right about now. Pour the stock into a large bowl through a strainer to get rid of all the flavoring elements (which you won’t want to eat). Set the stock aside.
Let the pot cool a little and then wipe it clean before proceeding. Add the olive oil and place it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions, season with salt and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until they are soft but not yet browned. Add the reserved corn kernels (everything you didn’t use for the pickles) and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the corn stock back in, bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the corn is tender. Then remove from the heat.
Time to blend! If you have an immersion blender use that. My immersion blender is my other favorite kitchen gadget, which also doubles as a food processor thanks to an attachment. Buy one immediately. It makes soup a snap (just wait for root vegetable season!) and greatly reduces the amount of dishes you’re doing because you never have to transfer the soup out of the stockpot. If you don’t have an immersion blender, get out a regular blender and transfer the soup in batches to blend it and transfer it into a new very large bowl. Strain the soup through a sieve when you are transferring if you want to. I didn’t. It turned out just fine. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if you feel like the soup needs it.
Let the soup cool and then put it in the fridge to chill. It takes much more interesting cold!
When you’re ready to box this up for lunch, combine a healthy heap of the pickles (use everything in the jar not just the corn!) and pour the corn soup on top of it. As usual, I like to eat this closer to room temperature than straight out of the fridge so pull it out a few minutes before you’re ready to eat to raise the temperature a bit.
Eat and think of delightfully corny corn puns to recite to your coworkers.