Summer Corn Chowder

Many corn soup recipes are chowders, and chowders generally include potatoes. Since potatoes and corn are more starch than I think is wanted in one recipe, I have collected some favorites that do not call for potatoes.

For some reason, most of these recipes are on the rich side, calling for cream or coconut milk, and cheese. One favorite is Indian and I usually make it in the winter with frozen corn.

Some vegetables, like asparagus, for instance, taste like two different foods from the canned to the fresh. But corn seems to be about the same whether it is home frozen at summer’s end, supermarket frozen, or even good quality canned. This means that though corn is associated with August, corn soups can be made year round.

This particular recipe seems summery because it is on the lighter side, and the yellow/red/green color combination looks refreshing. Cherry tomatoes cut in half can be used instead of the red pepper, but the pepper holds up better in later reheating.

 Instead of relying on potatoes to thicken the soup, the trick is to take half the soup and liquid, after the corn is cooked but before all the ingredients are added, and puree it. This gives the soup a solid consistency without using thickeners such as potatoes, cornstarch, or flour.

A recent houseguest brought us a chicken dinner with all the fixing for Friday night supper. After we had chicken and vegetables the first night, we made an Asian chicken salad the second night, and tacos the third night. Finally, all the collected bones were cooked up into a base for soup. That’s what went into the corn soup. However, when using homemade stock, it is necessary to adjust the seasoning for salt as even the best store-bought stock has a lot of salt.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 leek, cleaned and chopped

5 cups loosely packed corn

4 cups chicken broth

1 sweet red pepper, coarsely chopped

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

3 Tbsp. Chopped chives

Directions

1. Heat vegetable oil in soup pot
2. Add onion and leek and cook covered until soft
3. Add corn and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Add 2 cups chicken broth. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook covered for 20 minutes
5. Remove from heat. Cool partially and put half the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth.
6. Return mixture to soup pot and add remaining ingredients

If you are very organized when serving meals, you can add the chopped chives to the actual serving bowls so they will be crisp and bright green. I find if I leave the garnishing of dishes to the last minute, it may not get done, so I add the chives to the pot.

Yellow Tomato Soup with Cilantro Relish

Yellow tomatoes used to be an exotic fringe item at the end of the summer, but with the focus on local organic farm products, by the end of July yellow tomatoes are right up there with the red ones. They show up about the same time and share the space on farm stand counters.

On the other hand, while it is possible to pick up baskets of red seconds for making sauce and soup, yellow rarely shows up that way, so making yellow tomato soup is still something special. Both the color and the flavor make this soup unusual.

Unlike last weeks no-cooking gazpacho, this soup starts out by getting its flavor from cooking the seasoning, and then adding the other ingredients. Once everything is cooked, the soup goes into the blender, and then to the refrigerator. The cilantro-red tomato relish can be made any time.

Ingredients

For the Soup

1 tsp coriander seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 ½ tsp minced garlic

6 large yellow tomatoes cut into cubes

2 cups water

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 Tbsp lemon juice

For the Relish

1 medium red tomato, seeded and diced\

½ cup finely chopped red onion

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp minced jalapeno, or to taste

Soup Directions

1. Briefly toast the coriander and cumin seeds in the soup pot until they become fragrant and lightly brown. Be careful not to burn seeds.
2. Add olive oil and cook chopped onion and garlic until translucent. Do not brown; add a tablespoon of water if necessary.
3. Add tomatoes and cook five minutes.
4. Add remaining soup ingredients and cook 30 minutes.
5. Puree in blender or food processor.
6. Chill soup until serving.

Relish Directions

In a small bowl, combine all the relish ingredients. Adjust salt and pepper in soup and serve garnished with relish.

Everyday Gazpacho

Local tomatoes are making their appearance at the farmers’ markets. Ordinarily this would not be remarkable, but last year in the Northwest corner of Connecticut a blight wiped out the tomato crop and there was much fear that the culprit might lurk in the soil. But local farm stands are full of juicy red and yellow tomatoes, which means it is time for Gazpacho.

 My files include recipes for all kinds of special gazpachos: seafood, green, Mexican, or almost any other denomination. But my old standby is a recipe that always seems to please.  I call it “Everyday Gazpacho” because it does not require cooking, it uses ordinary seasonal ingredients, it takes only a few minutes to make, and it makes a quantity. Next time I will post a more exotic cooked tomato soup: Yellow Tomato Soup with Cilantro Relish.

Recently I tried a cold cucumber soup that seemed like a simple recipe: the few ingredients were combined in the blender, and then put through a strainer. The result was refreshing, but I would not recommend the recipe. Most recipes that ask you to put the results from your blender through a strainer have a problem. The strainer takes out so much pulp that the remaining liquid is just not worth the effort. We were left with two smallish cups of cold soup, which was just as well as it wasn’t a big hit with Mr. What’s For Lunch.

Gazpacho Ingredients

2 cups chopped tomatoes*

1 cup chopped red onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped peeled and seeded cucumber

1 ½ tsp chopped garlic

1 ½ tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 cups V-8 juice

Directions

1. Using a food processor, chop each of the first four ingredients separately by turning the machine on and off so that each one becomes small pieces but retains some consistency (this is a very brief process). Use a non-reactive bowl and add each vegetable as it is finished.
2. Add remaining 6 ingredients
3. Stir, cover, and refrigerate

*In an ideal kitchen, the tomatoes would be peeled. This can be done by cutting an X in the bottom of each tomato and submerging it in boiling water for 10 seconds to loosen skin. Chill under cold water and skin should come off. This is not an operation I generally do.

Szechwan Carrot Soup

Szechwan Carrot Soup

Everyone probably has a recipe for some kind of carrot soup. I have several, but this one has that subtle, mysteriously rich flavor that comes from the blending of several unexpected ingredients.

The recipe comes from friends of ours who renovated the family farmhouse and took the sunniest corner of the new kitchen, near the wood-burning stove, as an eating area. They like to invite guests for brunch or lunch in this sunny corner, rather than dinner in their dark, cool dining room. Their menus feature comfort food, like French toast marinated overnight or rich tasting soup.

Since they have lived in several different places, they have accumulated an eclectic store of recipes that they have shared with us. Their carrot soup has become one of our regulars, but it is not for anyone allergic to peanuts. On the other hand, it has plenty of nutritious ingredients.

In Search of Chicken Broth

So many recipes call for chicken broth that it is worthwhile exploring the options wherever you are. Since one of our sons became a farmer, we sometimes get large bags of chicken feet and necks. Cooking those up in a couple of big pots, along with tops from a bunch of celery, a couple of onions and carrots, produces a lot of broth. Since these parts come from pasture- raised chickens, there is no fat. Some of the broth I freeze in 4 cup containers, but I also puree the vegetables and keep a couple of containers of slightly thicker base.

When chicken parts are not on the horizon, I start reading the labels in the grocery story, or even a health food store. The labels are discouraging. Sugar and salt figure way too much in many brands, even ones that claim the high ground of being ‘gourmet,’ but at least a careful study can lead to the best of the bunch. If you find a brand that passes muster, stock up!

(Like all soups destined for the blender, there is no need to chop anything fine.)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 lb. carrots, cut up

¾ inch gingerroot, sliced

1/8 tsp. dried hot pepper flakes

3 cups chicken broth

1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce

1 ½ Tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 cup milk, or more as needed

1. Cook onion, celery, garlic in oil until just soft
2. Add carrots, ginger, pepper, chicken broth and cook until carrots are tender.
3. Add soy, peanut butter, sesame oil, and milk.
4. Puree. If soup is too thick, add a little extra milk. When reheating, try not to boil.

This soup is hearty, even though it has no meat. With a salad or a cheese plate, it can make a fine lunch, of if you add both salad and cheese, with a good bread, you can have an easy dinner.

Cioppino, Quick and Easy

For some reason, in addition to cold soups, summer makes me think of fish soups. I don’t know if this is because fish soups are often lighter than meat soups, or because I have spent so much time in New England that I think of summer and the coast as related, and the coast as offering all kinds of ocean-based meals.

Once, I can remember staying at a place in Maine where we managed to have lobster as part of every meal: breakfast was lobster omelets, lunch lobster salad, and dinner baked lobster.

There are numerous recipes for fish soups that start with cooking up heads and tails and shells. This can result in the same kind of rich broth that chicken feet and necks produce for meat-based stock. But during hot summer days, there are some shortcuts that result in a very tasty version of this classic Italian soup.

The recipe calls for a firm white fish, plus shrimp, and scallops. The proportions can be varied, but since shrimp get rubbery when cooked too much, it is best to have a variety of seafood. If the soup is made ahead, and there is enough other fish to give the soup flavor, the shrimp can be added just before serving.

Ingredients

3 Tblsp olive oil

2 cups finely chopped onion

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp chopped rosemary

¼ tsp dried crushed red pepper

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes in puree

2 8oz. bottles clam juice

¾ cup dry white wine

12 oz. firm white fish, cut into 1 inch pieces

½ lb. uncooked peeled shrimp

½ lb. bay scallops

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley for serving

Directions

1. Heat oil in soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, rosemary, and pepper. Cook 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, clam juice, wine and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Add seafood and 2 Tblsp parsley.
6. Cook until fish is opaque, about 3 minutes.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Garlic toast to float on the top is a nice addition at serving time, with the remaining parsley sprinkled on top.

Lemon-Artichoke Soup: Hot or Cold?

This week was supposed to be Szechuan Carrot Soup, but when the weather settled down in the nineties, it felt like something lighter was called for, so the Carrot Soup will appear a little later.

In the freezer I found a container of Lemon-Artichoke soup. It has a refreshing tang from the addition of the lemon, it is relatively easy to make in terms of having few ingredients, and is a little unusual in flavor, all recommendations for a recipe. The result was intended to be eaten hot, but I decided to try it out cold for our guests.

Much of our idea of cold soup comes from such French dishes as Vichysoise and Jellied Madrilene. Yet I have spent two sabbaticals in France, plus numerous other visits, and have never been served cold soup. It is as though the French think cold soup is a grievous culinary error, while we may think it is the height of sophistication. Perhaps the same could be said for Gazpacho, another fine cold soup that comes from another country where I have never been served cold soup. Once native tomatoes ripen, there will be a simple recipe for that, too.

The Lemon-Artichoke soup was a big hit cold, so here is the recipe, and you can enjoy it either way: hot or cold. This is one of those soups that gets pureed, so you don’t need to chop ingredients too fine. When soups are served cold, they sometimes need additional thinning so you avoid the consistency of oatmeal. Just cleaning out the container with a little extra milk may achieve the right consistency.

2 Tblsp butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, including leaves, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

pinch of thyme

½ tsp basil

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups canned artichoke hearts, drained

4 cups chicken stock or broth

juice from ½ lemon plus skin (not grated)

½ cup cream*

1. Melt butter in soup pot. Add onion, celery, and carrot. Cover and cook until soft.

2. Add thyme, basil, salt, pepper, artichokes and stock. Bring to a low boil.

3. Stir in lemon juice and add skin. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

4. Remove and discard lemon rind. Puree mixture in blender or food processor, adding ‘cream.’

5. If soup is to be served hot, do not boil.

* Unless there is leftover ½ and ½ from our daughter’s tea, or heavy cream leftover from a whipped cream dessert, when recipes call for cream, I use Fat Free Evaporated Milk. If we happen to have leftover real cream in any form, that usually calls for making a soup like Clam Chowder or Potato Leek. 

Mexican Fried Noodle Soup

Mexican Fried Noodle Soup

When our daughter was born, we had two sons, age 10 and 8, a cat, and a dog. We lived in the suburbs and I worked near home as a college teacher and administrator while my husband went off every day to practice law in the big city.

We were lucky to find a woman from Mexico to help take care of the baby. It turned out that though she had given birth to many children, she had also been a cook in a restaurant. She could concoct a dinner for 10 from one chicken, but everyone sat around the house crying from the spiciness.

She made her tortillas by hand using Masa Harina she brought from the city. In those days, ingredients like taco shells, black beans, and cilantro were exotic items in the suburbs.

She spoke no English and wasn’t quite literate in Spanish either, so we communicated in kitchen Spanish… everything in the present imperative.

Some of the special dishes she made we have never found again in any cookbook or restaurant. Mexican Fried Noodle Soup is one of those. But there are plenty of recipes for tortilla soup and I have always wondered if she made do with noodles because she didn’t have tortillas on hand, yet the result tastes different from tortilla soup. 


This is the recipe I often make when the children gather as it reminds them of so many things about their childhood at home.

(The asterisks at the end are suggestions for simplifying kitchen life.)

INGREDIENTS

2/3 16 oz. box of medium wide noodles

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 Poblano chiles, chopped*

2 cloves garlic, chopped **

Canned tomatoes, 28 oz.

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

12 oz. fresh spinach, rinsed and torn up

1 tsp. salt, pepper to taste

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro***

½ lime

1. Warm oil in large frying pan. Cook noodles, stirring frequently until they turn a light tan. Drain on paper towel.
2. Add onions, garlic, and chilies to oil. Cook just to soften onion.
3. In a soup pot, combine onion mixture with tomatoes, chicken broth, water, spinach, and salt. Cook for 20 minutes.
4. Add noodles, cilantro, and juice from lime. Cook 20 minutes more.

* I am nervous about making food too spicy so I tend to use Italian peppers and then add a small amount of jalapeno from a jar I keep on hand.

** Our CIA (Culinary Institute of America) trained nephew advises keeping a large jar of chopped garlic in the refrigerator.

***We keep a container of cilantro pesto in the refrigerator as the fresh kind is hard to find in our long Northeast United States winters.