Cream of Corn Soup

Christmas 2010 at Delaney and Morgan's house. Jeff Carter in the background!

I have been wanting to make a cream of corn soup ever since I had the Corn Soup Chowder at Mimi's Cafe. It is very tasty but as many of you know, I have an issue with the corn shells. No matter how much they cook them, they get stuck in the lap band and I cannot eat them. So I tried to come up with a recipe that would do away with the shells of the corn without sacrificing the taste. Much of this recipe was trial and error.

I first wanted to get fresh corn and cut off the kernels, cook that up and make the recipe that way. I was OK but by the time you cut off the fresh kernels off the husk and cooked it....there is not much there for taste. Next I used canned Niblets - a tasty sweet corn. However I found here that the corn kernels were very hard and I had to cook up the corn longer than I wanted to and the taste of the soup was incipid. While at King Soopers last week, I saw they had frozen vegetables on sale for $1 each! I got spinach for spinach soup or creamed spinach, pearl onions for stews or alone with a white sause and corn.

Today I made the best sweet corn cream soup I have ever tasted!!!

Cream of Corn Soup:

2 bags frozen corn

1 tbps butter

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (can also be made by adding 2 tbsp of powder to hot water)

2 cups half & half

To thicken mixture: 1/4 cup flour and 1 cup water - shaken well till there are no clumps

Pepper to taste

I put both bags of FROZEN corn into a microwaveable bowl along with the butter. Covered it and cooked for 10 mins. In the meantime I boiled 2 cups of water and added the chicken stock (vegetable stock can also be used). I transferred over the corn and stock into the blender the mixture for about 2 minutes stopping every 30 seconds. Place a sieve over the soup pot and start pouring the mixture through the collander. (I used a whisk inside the sieve to help stir the liquid through quicker.) I threw away the corn shells only keeping the corn pulp liquid for the soup. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil then add the 2 cups half & half. If you want the mixture to be thicker, mix the roux (recipe above) and add to the soup and bring back to a boil. Make sure you stir constantly as the corn will stick quickly.

I served this immediately and sprinkled fresh ground pepper on top. Dave said this was one of the tastiest soups I have ever made. Now most of you don't have a lap band inside of you and might enjoy the corn shells so if they do not bother you, leave them or take out only some of them. It's up to you and what you like. Enjoy!!

PS Mimi's Cafe adds chunks of potato, some chopped chives to their mixture. Be creative and see what you might like to add to yours. Or just leave it sweet, creamy and tasty as I did.