Yesterday Ben’s mother, Carole, and I took a trip to Top’s, the local supermarket, to shop for dinner, but, inspired by a “Local Sweet Corn” sign, made a quick detour just upon entering Bolton Landing. We picked up corn, tomatoes, peaches, watermelon, garlic, cucumbers. Feels like summer. It also feels like a good time to share this soup, which I made for the first time last week shortly after reading about it in Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat. The recipe calls for a mere four ingredients — corn, butter, onions, and salt — and its success relies on a fun trick: making a quick stock using nothing more than the stripped corn cobs and water. So smart! Since Samin’s book came out, I’ve read about it everywhere and in particular about Samin’s gift as a teacher. You sense this as soon as you begin flipping through the book, but you really benefit from it when you start cooking from the book. I loved the tips in the recipe itself about how to strip kernels from the cob — lining a bowl with a tea towel, which prevents the kernels from flying everywhere (see video) — and how to adjust the flavor of the soup at the end: “If the soup is very flatly sweet,” Samin writes, “a tiny bit of white wine vinegar or lime juice can help balance it out.” She was right. I found the soup needed just a slash of vinegar to balance the sweetness of the corn and onions, and I found the suggested acidic garnish — a Mexican-ish herb salsa — to be essential. I wanted a spoonful in every bite, and spooned what remained over the tomato salad and bread served on the side. (Incidentally, in addition to being delicious, the salsa is incredibly versatile — I made a batch a few days ago to serve with grilled steak tacos, and we spooned the leftover salsa over grilled chicken last night.) Depending on where you are, it may hardly feel like soup season, but last week, the upstate New York summer had me donning my fleece-lined flannel, and nothing sounded better than a bowl of soup. This said, there’s good news: this soup can be served chilled. Hooray! I haven’t felt this excited (maybe) about a recipe since I first made fresh corn polenta and wanted to shout about it from the rooftops. I hope you are as enchanted as I. PS: Lake George 5 from 9 reviews This soup can be served hot or cold, though I’ve only ever eaten it hot. I find the salsa to be essential, and the next time I make the soup, I’ll make a double batch of the salsa, because it’s the kind of thing that’s good drizzled on anything — tomatoes, mozzarella, chicken, bread. For the salsa, I don’t make it exactly as written below, but I wanted to include it the way it is written in the book, because it may be helpful to you. I simply macerate the shallots as suggested, then add the remaining ingredients — I never find it to be too acidic. Also, the first time I made the salsa, I didn’t have scallions, and it came out fine, though they are a nice addition if you have them.
