This was, if I say so myself, a delicious soup. All the recipes I looked at on line for inspiration used water, vegetable stock or chicken stock as a base, and I didn't think that any of those would deliver the taste that I wanted.
I will admit that my recipe is a bit fiddly but you will be rewarded by the creamiest, most delectable soup - a pure distillation of all that is good and sweet about corn - that you can possibly imagine. With the price of corn so incredibly low at the end of the summer, you can afford to make copious quantities of this before corn season is over.
8 ears of corn
3 cups of milk
1 cup of cream
12 dry scallops
1 Tbsp chopped oregano leaves
2 tsps butter
1 tsp olive oil
Salt
Place the corn, still unhusked, in the microwave for 5 minutes on high. Let cool in the husk.
Remove the husks and the silk, discard. Wash the corn.
Using a large bowl and a sharp knife, separate the kernels from the cob. I find using one continuous stroke the length of the cob and then giving the cob a quarter turn and starting again works best. As well as individual kernels, you will end up with rectangles of kernels which have remained attached (hard to explain but look at the image above). Set 4 of those aside to use as garnish. Set the kernels aside.
Break the cobs in half and put the cobs into a large pan. Add the milk. Put the heat on low and allow the milk to slowly come to a boil. Remove from the heat and refrigerate (cobs and all) until cold. Remove the cobs and discard.
Pour the corn cob infused cold milk over the kernels and whiz until as smooth as possible. Pour into a sieve over another bowl and press the solids against the sieve well to extract all liquid and flavor. You can freeze the solids that are left behind to add to cornbread, polenta or pancakes.
Add the cream to the liquid that you have extracted from the solids and salt to taste. Refrigerate to chill.
You can make this the day before you plan on serving the soup. The scallops must be made at the last minute.
Place the butter, oil and oregano in a skillet over medium heat and heat through until the butter is melted and starting to brown.
Pat the scallops dry and salt them lightly on each side. As soon as the butter is a light brown, add the scallops to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side.
While the scallops are cooking, check the soup for seasoning and portion out into 4 pre-chilled soup bowls.
Add 3 scallops to each dish, garnish with a piece of the reserved corn and pour over a bit of the oregano butter-oil that remains in the pan.
Creamy, sweet, cold and warm - IMHO, the perfect corn soup. Crappy photo aside, I promise that this soup delivers so much corn flavor that you will feel it in your bloodstream afterwards...It was so good that I actually had the rest, as is - no scallops or oregano - and drank it as is for a midnight snack.
I had planned on serving this with Brazilian sweet potato flat breads but it was 105 in my kitchen without the oven on and I could not do it. We had grilled cheese sandwiches on the side instead and it was an inspired choice.
Just to make sure that I have gotten my point across: make it, make it, make it!!!!