Fresh, sweet corn is one of the best flavours summer has to offer, but it’s often too hot to boil a huge pot of water indoors, and let’s be honest – it can be somewhat inelegant to serve it on the cob. (Floss, anyone?)
Roasted and chilled corn soup topped with sour cream, cilantro and bacon.
This delicious cold soup is a great way around these two inconveniences. We tasted this at an outdoor cocktail earlier this summer hosted by Bombay Sapphire gin, and have waited until we could get our hands on some local corn before sharing. It’s dead-easy to put together, and makes a great starter for barbecues and picnics.
The only real trick is grilling the corn without blackening it, which takes patience and vigilance, since its high sugar content makes for easy scorching. A little char doesn’t hurt the flavour at all, but will turn the final dish a little grey.
Try not to burn the corn like we did in Ogunquit last week.
Pairs well with a veranda and an ocean breeze.
Roasted and chilled corn soup
slightly adapted from a recipe by Alexandre Gosselin
NOTE: You don’t have to strain this, but you really should.
Serves 4 to 6 as a soup course, 8 to 10 as a tasting course.
3 tbsp. olive oil
5 cobs of corn
1 small Spanish onion, sliced into thin rounds
½ C chicken stock (or water)
½ C pineapple juice
2 tbsp. gin
salt and pepper
½ C sour cream
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro
Preheat a grill to medium heat. Oil and season corn cobs and onion slices. Grill about 3 minutes on each side, until corn is nicely browned but not burned. Take the corn cobs and the onion off the grill, and cut niblets off the cobs using a knife.
Set the equivalent of one corn cob aside in a medium bowl, and place the rest along with the onions in a blender. Add stock (or water), pineapple juice, and gin, and blend 2 minutes. Season and strain to obtain a smooth texture.
Refrigerate until ready to serve. To the bowl containing the grilled corn niblets, add the sour cream, cilantro and cooked bacon, season, and use as a garnish on top of each bowl of soup. Alternatively, garnish the soup with the the sour cream, reserved corn niblets, bacon, and cilantro.
I absolutely love how roasting corn brings out its amazing sweetness. This soup sounds great
Wei-Wei
Interesting addition of pineapple juice! And of course you had me at bacon garnish…
the ribs are haunting me.
I promise we will post the recipe for the ribs soon, Melissa. They go went with the chilled corn soup.