Make this soup with the season’s sweetest crop of corn!
Sweet Corn Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
10 to 12 ears of fresh sweet corn, shucked, and kernels cut off of the cobs – this should yield 7 to 8 cups of corn (I used yellow and white mixed – but use whatever you want as long as it’s fresh!)
4 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
Melt butter and olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and fennel and saute until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute about a minute until fragrant. Add the corn and mix together with all of the other ingredients, making sure corn is well coated with the butter, oil, and bits of garlic, about 3 minutes. Add water and increase heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer on low, partially covered, for about 15 minutes.
Transfer the soup to a blender (I used my vitamix for a super smooth and creamy result – you may have to do this in portions) and blend until completely smooth. Transfer the blended soup back to the soup pot, add salt and some generous pepper grinds to taste, and keep warm. You may make the soup up to this step, transfer to tight sealed containers and refrigerate for up to one day.
When ready to serve, rewarm soup over medium heat, stirring. Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with chives, and serve. We had fresh langoustines from Metropolitan Seafood the day we served this, so we grilled them off and topped the soup with the langoustine meat. I roasted fennel and topped one of our guest’s bowls with that instead instead to keep it vegetarian. Makes 6 to 8 servings.