Can you say: “Oh My Goodness! Oh My Goodness! Have I died and gone to Heaven?” Yes, this is that good and then some. Delicate yet full of flavor. You definitely need to try this! You can serve this as the opening course for your Thanksgiving Holiday meal as it is a perfect Fall soup with all the luxurious corn flavor packed in this soup but it will be a hard act to follow.
What a killer soup this is! As you know, we have been wanting to do fall meals and soups because ’tis the season. It’s just been rather warm to get in the Fall mood. This weekend, however, we got another little cold snap. At the same time, we were at the market and there was an abundance of fresh corn on the cob. I couldn’t resist. I knew there was a soup in the making somewhere. I had been thinking about a corn chowder but we had already posted a couple of chowders and, to be honest, corn chowder is not one of my favorite soups. Then, as we were walking through the market I saw the crab was on sale. This was a no brainer. Everyone knows crab and corn go very well together so a crab and corn chowder seemed the way to go and where I was leaning. Then, while watching PBS, Nick Stellino came on with a silky corn and crab soup finished with a black truffle oil. It looked incredibly good so we decided to try it with some modification. First, we decided to fortify the corn flavor through the use of the corncobs. Most people forget about the corncob and throw it away but there is a tremendous amount of flavor in the cob. Next, we nixed the truffle oil as I am not overly fond of black truffles or black truffle oil. Baby Lady tried it with a white truffle oil and it’s a nice addition but I leave that up to you at your discretion. Fresh white truffles would be divine with this soup but try getting those in the US. We then increased the crab because we like crab and its delicate flavor would not overpower the corn but would form the perfect compliment. We also nixed the extra sugar because we were using a sweet winter corn that has enough natural sugar, as well as a little extra sherry. So we felt that no extra sugar was needed. Last, you guessed it, we gave it a little kick with the addition of jalapeño peppers (if you want a touch more heat add serrano chiles instead of the jalapeño). I mean stop and think about it. Jalapeños go with corn and crab. It, too, was a no brainer. It added just a touch of kick (Baby Lady says she didn’t even notice it) and is a nice addition to this velvety smooth, luscious soup. This will make a wonderful appetizer or lunch soup with a nice sandwich or you can have it as a main entree. As a main entree, it feeds 4. As an appetizer or lunch soup, it feeds 6 – 8, just adjust the amount of crab. Of course, you could double the batch because everyone is going to love this soup and you would hate not to have enough. 😉
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp good olive oil
- 1/4 cup shallots, minced
- 3 ears fresh, sweet, winter corn on the cob
- 1/3 cup sherry
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 cup cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp red bell pepper, minced
- 2 Tbsp jalapeno, minced
- 1 Tbsp chopped garlic chives, minced
- 1/2 lb king crab meat, cut into bite size chunks
- 1/2 lb lump crabmeat
- 1/3 cup brandy
Instruction
To prepare the soup
Before we start, prep the corn by removing the kernels from the corncob. Because we want a very flavorful corn soup (the corn really is the star), you want every last drop of corn flavor you can get from the fresh corn. This includes the flavor in the corncob. Cut the cobs into thick pieces and place them in a large pot with the chicken stock.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium and let simmer for 30 – 45 minutes to extract the flavor out of the corncobs. If there is less than 4 cups of broth remaining, add enough water to bring it to 4 cups. This will provide you a beautiful base upon which to build your corn soup.
Once you have made your soup base, add the olive oil to a sauté pan over medium heat. When hot, add the shallots and sauté until tender, roughly 2 – 3 minutes.
Now, add the corn and continue to cook for 3 more minutes.
Add the sherry, and cook until the sherry is reduced to a glaze on the bottom of the pan, roughly 2 – 3 minutes.
Add the soup base, increase heat to high and bring the soup to a boil.
Cover the pan, reduce the heat to simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Let the soup cool, then place in a blender and blend at its highest setting for 1 to 2 minutes depending upon your blender.
Strain and rub the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the pulp.
This is where a chinois comes in very handy. It really is an invaluable kitchen tool. A good chinois will come with a wooden, conically shaped plunger. This enables you to rub a pulpy puree like this through the chinois squeezing out every last drop of flavor from the pulpy, tough skin of the kernel. When you get toward the end you begin to roll the conical plunger around the chinois finishing the extraction of the flavor. When you are done you will see the pulp on the plunger, like thus.
Return the soup to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add cream and cook for an additional 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (every 3 – 5 minutes or so) to keep the soup from burning. This is a puree and it will burn if left alone.
Adjust salt to taste. If not using the chiles, then add freshly ground WHITE pepper to taste, as well. White pepper is used because it blends better into the color of the soup AND it has a softer, more subtle flavor with some wine undertones. Inasmuch as I used unsalted stock, to my taste, roughly 1-1/2 tsp of salt was needed. A salted stock will take less, again, depending upon your palate.
To prepare the crabmeat
While the soup is cooking, prepare the crab. Start by melting the butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat and adding the red pepper
the jalapeños
and chives
Sauté the vegetables over medium-high heat until tender, roughly 1 – 2 minutes. Now, add the crabmeat.
Increase the heat to high, and cook for 1 – 2 minutes more to heat the crabmeat through. Carefully, add the brandy and toss to incorporate.
Cook for 1 more minute, remove from heat, cover and keep warm until ready to serve.
To serve:
Place a 1-1/2 inch ring mold in the middle of a soup bowl. Spoon in the crabmeat
Ladle soup around ring mold
Remove ring mold, garnish with a sprig of parsley, serve & enjoy!
REMCooks 
This looks delicious Richard, I make a similar soup but it is potato based and served cold. I can’t wait to try your recipe…beautifully presented as well.
Hi, Karen. Thanks for the very nice compliment. 🙂 We hope you do give this a try as it is an incredible soup. Baby Lady commented that it is one of the best soups we have had in quite a while.
Remarkable recipe. Great walkthrough. Beautiful looking crab. I am seething in envy.
Best,
Conor
Thanks, Conor. I want you to know Baby Lady took the cream pour shot just for you. 😉
I think I like her.
🙂
Arrghhhh!!!!!! I just realized I posted the wrong pour shot. 😦 Baby Lady honestly made me stop so she could catch the droplets just for you. I fixed it now so you HAVE to go look at it! Sheesh. 😮
Now I know that I like her. Great shot indeed. I try and fail at this stuff on a regular basis. Once in a while I succeed. But only once in a while.
Best,
Conor
Just WOW! Absolutely beautiful. . LOVE all these soups you are doing. . and love how you plated this! Ring mold. Fabulous!
Thanks, Alice, for the very nice compliment. I have really been wanting to do soups for a while now. Now that it’s cooler I am getting a chance to do some. I have a wild mushroom consommé I do around Christmas that’s on the agenda. When I was cooking professionally, the thing I enjoyed the most and felt I did the very best was soups and sauces. There is something about the mouthfeel of a wonderful soup/sauce that makes my heart go pitter-pat. This soup really has it all. As for the ring mold, everybody has to have their toys and mine just so happen to be my kitchen tools. 😀
Love it!!! I’m still getting my kitchen in order with the tools, appliances, cookware, bakeware and gadgets. . there are sooo many! LOVE the ring mold! Now, buying dishes and kitchen stuff makes my heart go pitter-pat 😛 (and food of course!)
Absolutely delicious.
Thank you for dropping by and your nice compliment. It was absolutely delicious. 😀 We hope you give it a try.
This sounds fantastic, Richard. Corn chowder made right is a great dish, in its own right. Your use of the cobs to make the chowder’s base is a great idea. And that would have been enough for me. Not you! No, you go and add that crab. Oh, baby! What a great recipe and presentation! This would be perfect fot Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, John. Thanks for the very nice compliment. 🙂 Using the corncobs for the soup base makes a world of difference. You get a real flavorful yet delicate corn base. If you have the cobs, you might as well use them, right? The interplay between the corn and the crab in this dish is simply amazing. Both are very delicate and sweet. The corn takes center stage, as it should. After all this is a corn soup but the crab is the perfect, delicate compliment.
I’m definitely going to make a version of this! I might use crab stock rather than chicken. Wonderful recipe, I’m sure it was outstanding. I’ll have to wait until I find corn on the cob, which is not as commonly sold here as in the US.
Hi, Stefan. Glad you like the recipe. 🙂 Originally, I was going to use a lobster stock I had but I only had 2 cups. So, I saved it for another yet to be revealed to me purpose. Crab stock would be nice. If you try it with crab stock let me know how it goes as I would be very interested. If you can get some white truffle, I think that would send this soup over the top.
Just made this with local crab and it was delicious! Kees was wondering how I came up with this. Even managed to find a jalapeño and it was good! I bet it’s even better with king crab, but that’s ridiculously expensive here 😦 The texture of local crab is very flaky. Post to follow next week… Thanks for the inspiration!
I look forward to reading your post. 🙂
A bit later than planned… http://stefangourmet.com/2012/12/09/corn-soup-with-crab/
While writing I remember I had some questions about this recipe:
– Is it really necessary to let the soup cool before pureeing it? (I didn’t.)
– Is the final simmering of the soup to concentrate it even more? I was getting hungry and didn’t simmer for the full 20 minutes 😉
Hi, Stefan. Hope all is well. I need to recreate this dish with some Dungeness Crabs and use crab stock to see the difference the stock makes. I loved your approach to the dish. Insofar as your questions are concerned, the only reason to allow the soup to cool is it is easier to work with. I let it cool to a warmer temp but not luke warm. Just warm enough to work with it and not steam myself in the process. The final simmering allows the soup to heat to serving temperature, provides a little more reduction, and allows the flavors to blend a little further. If you don’t cool the soup initially, I don’t see it makes a whole lot of difference.
Your corn soup absolutely the bomb.I love how you paired it with crab what a perfect friendship.Thank you for sharing your recipes and talent.
Thanks for your very nice compliment. Corn and crab are a perfect pairing aren’t they?
Thank you for replying to my comment.Happy Thanksgiving early .
OK, now I’m hungry. And there are a lot of good techniques in this recipe. If I’m not careful, I might learn something here!
Thanks, Doug. For some reason, however, I don’t think corn silk and string theory have much in common. 😮
All the work and preparation…luscious is the right word! Corn and crab are one of top favorite foods. Great job Richard.
Thanks, Joy. This is one killer soup and there really isn’t a lot of prep. As a first course, this will feed 6 – 8 and as a main course 4. Total time is around 1-1/4 hours to prep and cook. Not a great weeknight meal but definitely a romantic weekend dinner. This would be a great starter for, among others, turkey with a cornbread stuffing, beef, lamb, venison or seafood. You could then finish the meal with a nice corn custard dessert, a nice corn ice cream or even a corn shortcake with a berry compote. How fun!!
It would turned out to be one great and romantic dinner, I definitely agree!
Yes, I can say it…but please tell me how to turn the voice off…I can’t seem to stop! What a brilliant soup idea…what an ingredient list!…how you’ve flavored the base with the cobs…and I love how you’ve plated it! Pinning this one Richard!
Sorry for not responding earlier but I missed your comment. Thanks. 🙂 I hope you give it a try. It really is unbelievably delicious.
Yep, I will give it a try. Looks like a winner!
Thanks. 🙂
hmmmm I am going to try that tonight 🙂
Thanks, we’re sure you will like this. 🙂
Nice soup..
thank you for the recipe
the soup looks delicious.. so, yuuuummmyyy 🙂
Thanks we hope you try our other soups.