"When I was growing up in Connecticut, corn was on the table every summer night. “It’s a short season,” my father would say, passing around the platter for the fourth time. My mother would steam the ears in a huge canner and heap them onto a big kitchen towel on a platter, then wrap the towel around them to keep them warm. She might also make a big platter of ripe beefsteak tomatoes and meat of some kind. But when fresh corn was on the menu, we hardly noticed anything else. Our family of six could go through two dozen ears at a sitting.
These days, corn is bred to be sweet, and the taste depends less than it once did on the perfect moment for harvest and getting it to your plate shortly thereafter. Some say the new hybrid sweet corn will never taste as sweet as the old-fashioned corn of my childhood, but I’m not sure how much I really mind. Sweet corn is still pretty wonderful, and summer is the season for it.
Corn is a grain that we treat like a vegetable when we eat it fresh, on or off the cob. It should only be cooked for four or five minutes, and the sooner after you buy it, the better. Steaming is the easiest way to cook corn on the cob.
Corn is a good source of several nutrients, including thiamin (vitamin B1), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), folate, dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorus and manganese. A cup of corn supplies 19 percent of the recommended daily dose of folate and about a quarter of daily value for thiamin."
Fragrant Puree of Corn Soup
This soup is all about corn, intensely so. If your corn isn’t sweet, the soup will be dull, so make sure it’s good before you begin. Use the cobs for the stock and the kernels for the soup. The soup should be velvety smooth -- don’t skip the straining step -- and very fragrant.
For the stock:
The cobs from 3 large ears corn
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 pound carrots, sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 quarts water
Salt to taste
For the soup:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small or 1/2 medium sweet onion, chopped
Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste
Kernels from 3 ears corn
For garnish:
Cooked kernels from 1 ear of corn
1. Make the stock: Combine the corn cobs, quartered onion, carrots, garlic and water in a large soup pot, and bring to a boil. Season with a small amount of salt (you will be reducing this broth, so don’t salt fully at this point). Reduce the heat, cover and simmer one hour. Strain and return to the pot. Bring to a boil, and reduce to 5 cups. Taste and adjust seasoning.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot, and add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring, until tender, about five minutes, and add the corn kernels. Cook gently for about three minutes, stirring, and add the stock. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
3. Transfer to a blender in 1 to 1 1/2-cup batches, taking care to cover the top with a towel to avoid hot splashes, and blend the soup until smooth. Put through a medium strainer, pressing the soup through with the bottom of a ladle or with a spatula, and return to the pot. Heat through, taste and adjust seasonings. Place a generous spoonful of corn in each bowl, ladle in the soup, and serve.
Yield: Serves four.
Advance preparation: You can prepare the soup several hours before you serve. Heat through gently on top of the stove.
Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com.
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