Get the klieg lights, roll out the red carpet ‘cuz corn has arrived in Hollywood and this fan has big plans. That’s right, when the first summer corn starts to make its annual appearance I have one motto: ”Eat Corn Now!”
- Eat corn now– with friends.
- Eat corn now– alone.
- Eat corn now– on the cob.
- Eat corn now– in a salad.
- Eat corn now– from the grill.
And my favorite: Eat corn now– in a soup!
I am making a Creamy Corn Soup with Poached Lobster & Chive Oil
My version is a conglomeration of many recipes that I have collected over the years. That’s because making good soup is more of a process than a recipe. I did take copious notes as I was making this soup so if you care to try it yourself you can.
I like this soup quite a bit. I think that the sweet corn contrasts nicely with the smokiness of the bacon, it is a very satisfying sweet and savory combination. I drizzled the soup with a bit of chive oil. Nothing says summer to me like chives. The verdancy of its herbaceous flavor adds a very nice, bright element. It’s the perfect foil for the soup’s touch of cream and its luscious butter-poached lobster.
As I said there were many inspiration sources in this recipe. Too many to list or even remember but I do need to give Kitchen Girl Jo credit on the butter-poached lobster tails. This is her method word for word and its perfect. I make mine exactly as she describes to great success. I hope she doesn’t mind me passing along her recipe.
There is one unusual aspect to my soup. I can’t say exactly where I first learned about it but I always add the corncobs to my corn soup stock. Be it water based or chicken based the cobs add a certain level of nutty corniness that makes a big difference in the complexity of flavors in my opinion. It also adds some extra starchiness that improves the texture.
On a final note, my version has cream in it. I know cream gives many of you nightmares. But fats bind flavors together in a magical way and I find it indispensable in this soup. If, as Julia Child used to say, you are afraid to use cream just add butter. Now that’s funny!
Creamy Corn Soup with Poached Lobster & Chive Oil serves 6 CLICK here for a printable recipe
- 8 ears corn
- 4 slices thick cut bacon
- 2 T ubsalted butter
- 1 medium onion, preferably sweet such as maui, vidalia or walla walla, diced
- 1 large shallot, diced
- 8 sprigs thyme
- 4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 sprigs sage
- 6 c chicken stock
- 1 lb yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 t kosher salt, or to tatse
- 1 t white pepper, or to taste
- 1⁄2 c heavy cream
- 3 butter poached lobster tails (see recipe here), coarsely chopped
- 6 T chive oil (see recipe here)
Cut all the kernels from the cobs. Discard all but 2 of the cobs. Cut the remaining cobs in half crosswise.
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the bacon slices in a single layer and cook until they have rendered their fat, but not yet browned. Add the butter, onions and shallots to the pot, increasing the temperature to medium-high. Sweat the onions and shallots with the bacon, stirring occasionally until they are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Using kitchen twine tie the thyme, parsley and sage sprigs together in a bundle adding them to the pot. Add the chicken stock, potatoes, and the corn cob pieces. Season generously with salt and white pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer and cook the mixture until the potatoes soften, about 20 minutes.
Add the cream and the corn kernels, stirring to combine. Simmer about 3 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and discard the bacon, herb bundle and corncobs. Then, using an immersion blender, blend the soup until completely pureed. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Pass the soup through a fine meshed sieve into a sauce pan. It should be velvety, but not too thick. Adjust with a little water or more chicken stock if needed. Gently reheat the soup.
To serve: Divide the soup evenly between 6 soup bowls. Mound some of the butter poached lobster on top and drizzle each one with about 1 tablespoon chive oil. Serve warm.
SERIOUS FUN FOOD
Greg Henry
SippitySup







Comments
did you say LOBSTER
Lobster is my favorite! Looks yummy on the corn soup.
Just adding to the chorus!
I second all the raves here - this soup is spectacular!
OMG you are all excited about
OMG you are all excited about the corn when you have those stunning lobster? Ha! But seriously I do really miss fresh sweet corn and eat as much as I can whenever I am in the US in the summer. I absolutely love it. But this soup is fabulous! Just fabulous!
Oh, Julia Child was brilliant!
wow wow wow. Who could resist
wow wow wow. Who could resist this special occasion soup? Now I've got to think up a special occasion to make it. Hmm - Sunday is a special occasion, right?
Decadent
This is clearly not your ordinary soup. It's just so stunning and I can taste it just reading through your recipe! Mmm!
OM-NOM-NOM!
This looks faaar too good. I love it, but then how could I not? Sweetcorn? Cream? LOBSTER? Spoon, meet mouth.
Congrats on the Top 9 today and I will most definitely be adding this one to the old recipe bank for immediate testing... Also, beautiful photos and blog - I shall be back!
Jax x
This soup is over the top
This soup is over the top gorgeous and rich! Well deserved Top 9 post today!
Children of The Corn
This looks so incredible. I saw butter poaching in an online class at Rouxbe and have been wanting to try it because the idea of poaching something in butter enthralls me. How did you restrain yourself from just eating the lobster by itself as soon as it was done? Three thumbs up on this post! (two thumbs isn't good enough for this one)
Now I am really EXTRA Corny, I mean hungry!
Gosh I would have to slip in to see what you have going on and see this! The skirt steak looks good too, so maybe I will do a surf and turf meal tonight!
Thanks for the yummy ideas, and I am always corny!
Oh so true! I've tried
Oh so true! I've tried making corn soup/chowder without using cream or half & half and it just lacks the fullness in flavor. And with rendered bacon fat and lush sweet lobster - WOW!
'Nutty Corniness' - hahahaha
Now that's my kinda soup! This looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to make it.
I love making bisques and
I love making bisques and even gazpacho's with corn because of the all the glutamic acids that corn has (i.e. umami), but adding lobster just takes this to another level. Great idea!
thanks for the mention!
That soup looks amazing! I'm definitely going to make it! Brilliant!
Damn! This soup is HOT! I
Damn! This soup is HOT! I have one little comment/suggestion. This one comes from my personal taste. I always question the use of meat stocks in a soup that should showcase a flavor. I know it is because people like having body to the soup. My preference is to have a cleaner flavor. In the case of this soup, what I would do is make a vegetable stock and simmer the corn cobs in it to extract the maximum "corn" flavor.
Again, it is just one of those preferences I have. Certainly nothing wrong with using a meat stock, I just prefer to taste the clean taste of corn, bacon and lobster in this soup. Chicken kinda does not have a place. I was also thinking that roasting the body of the lobster and making lobster oil out of it would be devine too, but that is the radical part of me speaking. LOL Greg, can I have some of this soup to go please?
Corn Stock
I usually make corn stock using water. In this instance I chose chicken because when I have done soups here in the past that started with water (the black pepper cabbage and asparagus soups I have done come to mind), they get lukewarm responses. If I were a bolder cook and not so intent on pleasing my readers I might have had the courage to go with a water based corn stock. But I knew this was a good soup and wanted to go for full effect!! GREG
Now that's special. I laughed
Now that's special. I laughed out loud (or LOL, as they say) at the Julia quote.
What a beautiful soup. LOVE
What a beautiful soup. LOVE the lobster in it... it puts this soup right over the top. I never would have thought of adding the cobs to the stock, but it's a great idea!
Looks awesome
I love corn soup and with lobster, wow definitely a winning combination you have there!
What a gorgeous soup!
I can't wait until fresh corn starts to hit the markets here in NY. This is going to be one of the first things that I make. I think it will be fun to make the chive oil. Do you have any other recipes that call for chive oil?
Chive Oil
Can be drizzled on anything you want to summerize. Veggies, grilled meat, especially fish. It works particularly well to balance rich foods like this soup. GREG
Great looking soup
The soup sounds great. We have a similar attitude once we see the corn carts line up along the roads selling freshly picked sweet corn (The best part of being in Iowa). Corn will be our lunches and dinners for at least a week or 2 straight.
I love corn
It's good season to eat corn. I will try to enjoy it as much as you do.
I love that we both posted
I love that we both posted corn soup recipes...and that we made stock from the cobs.
How could anyone fear cream? It's the spice of life.
Your soup sounds better than
Your soup sounds better than my favourite corn/crab soup at one of the best restaurants in the city. Really. Love the incorporation of fresh herbs! And hey, I'm not afraid of cream at all :)))
OMG
I've been making my corn soup with crab, but now that it's summer I'm going to have to switch to lobster (and your recipe). Isn't the old saying "you can't eat lobster corn soup before summer solstice? Or is it you can't wear white after summer solstice...wait...isn't Memorial Day or Labor Day in there somewhere? Now I'm just confused.
Beautiful. I haven't had
Beautiful. I haven't had corn soup since I lived at home but my mother's version is more a peasant one compared to this more high-end preparation. And you know what, she used the cobs to impart flavor, too. I think they add a little sweetness to the stock. I love the addition of the lobster.
Who's afraid of cream?
I don't think I would trust anyone who is afraid of cream (or butter.) Creamy bisque like soups...yum. Pasta with cream sauces...yum. I just love fresh corn - just put some cobs on the grill the other night. Now, lobster? Cannot remember the last time I could afford lobster. Sigh. This sounds so heavenly.
Indulgence!
in it's pure form!! beautiful dish and oh I can just imagine how good the fresh, sweet corn would have been!!
Perfection
The Julia Child's quote made me smile! All in moderation, yes!?
Rarely do I read through an entire recipe, this one grabbed my attention and I read it in it's entirity. Beautiful photos lately, not that we should expect anything less.
This is a good one to imagine
I mean, the wonderful sweet flavor of the corn along with the rich lusciousness of the lobster. Mmmmm.
*LOVE* it!
Luscious ingredients and gorgeous photo 8) Has corn in fridge ~ must find lobster!
Sunken City Supper Club
Hi Greg - we have been searching for the right recipe for our next Sunken City Supper Club dinner, highlighting summer produce. There are so many great recipes out there (I just read another one that uses corn cobs for stock and that sounded great) but this is perfect, because we also need it to be elegant. With lobster. Everyone will go crazy over it. Thanks!
LL
Darn, I have to wait until
Darn, I have to wait until July for the corn to be as high as an elephant's eye before I can eat some MN sweet corn
what can I even say?
As always, you seem to have hit on a perfect flavor combination with flawless presentation.
Oh Geez! Lobster & Corn - What's not to love!
GREG - Love your technique in this recipe. The creaminess just shines through & the lobster is that touch of ooh la la! The Beure Monte is fabulous - excellent instructions too.
It's a good thing we don't live in the same city. I'd have to camp on your door step :)
Ciao, Devaki @ weavethousandflavors
A colorful cornucopia
Love your breathtaking shots of yellow, orange and green! I think it still sounds good without the bacon and lobster as long as it's got cream and butter. And maybe leave some of the kernels whole for texture. What the hell. Next time, I'll write your recipe. : )
summer corn
This is pretty much a perfect bowl of summer! I love corn with lobster. I make a corn and shrimp chowder, but lobster sounds even better. And, I agree about the cream. It's necessary!
Your Photos Scream SUMMER!
Gorgeous photos; I especially like the one of the ear of corn. The soup looks amazing! Can't wait for our local corn to arrive.
Corn and Lobster: Great Combination
Corn and lobster are natural together. They both exude summer and are just perfect for a soup. I make a corn and lobster chowder with smoked salmon for flavoring instead of bacon. I serve that to my pescatarian friends.
Lobster and Corn
I don't know what it is about the combination of lobster and corn that makes me swoon... maybe the fact that my husband proposed at Coit Tower and we enjoyed a decadent meal of lobster, corn fritters and guacamole at (the now closed) Julius' Castle in San Fran. This soup looks like it may keep the dream alive :)
Awesome
Corn soup is one of my favorite things. I wouldn't have thought of the poached lobster addition though. That makes it exceptional!
That's a great use of fresh corn.
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