Creamy and Soupie

Photography by Donna Samonte


Wanted some comfort food, ended up with the simple corn soup. Not much besides corn, shallots, butter, and basil simmered in water.....that easy.

Corn Soup

Ingredients:
6 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 stem fresh basil, plus a handful of extra leaves
2 cups creamy corn kernels
1/2 cup scallions (white part only) finely chopped, save green part
1/4 cup red bell pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
In a soup pot, melt the butter. Saute shallots then dash salt, and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until the shallots are soft but not browned. Add chicken stock and stem of basil then bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the corn kernels and bell pepper, simmer for 5 minutes.

Using tongs, remove stem of basil from the pot. Add the handful of basil leaves and submerge them in the soup without cooking them.

Puree the soup in a blender until it is a coarse puree. Return to the pot, taste for seasoning, dash more salt and pepper according to taste.

Serve with scallion sprinkles.

Soup stock

It's always great to have soup stock around the house. Homemade is always the best. Although there available ready made bullion cubes and soup packs in the supermarket, there are days that you can make one on your own and freeze for future use, or even on those days that you bought meat and discarding those bones....instead of throwing it in the garbage, you might as well put it into use.


Soup Stock

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef soup bones

6 qts cold water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, quartered
3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 ripe tomatoes, quartered
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp salt
6 black peppercorns

Directions:
In a stockpot combine all ingredients putting beef soup bones last then add water. Cover pot and boil for about 15 minutes then remove scum and fat as they float to the top. Simmer for 1.5 hours. When cooked, strain broth. Refrigerate overnight. Skim fat from surface and discard.

You can it at once and/or store in the freezer for future use.

*For chicken soup, replace beef bones soup with chicken bones.