The corn in question comes straight from a tin, in both whole kernels and cream-form, which makes this blissfully convenient. Ground turmeric offers a breathy, spicy mustiness and a very sophisticated yellow colour.
Under normal catering conditions, this serves four. Like the other recipes this this series, it serves two people twice during the week. Any leftovers can be refrigerated for a day or two. If leftovers are your sole cause, then I feel more confident refrigerating it after liquidising, only adding cream (how much you add depends on how much soup you heat) and nutmeg when you want to eat.
Ingredients
1 leek, prepared and finely sliced
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 potato, about 250g, peeled and dice
1 fresh bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
A 400g tin of sweetcorn kernels
A 400g tin of cream-style sweetcorn
550ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
175ml single cream (or milk)
a little grated nutmeg
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the leek and celery and sweat over a medium heat till soft and translucent. Drop in the solitary garlic clove and potato dice. Sweat for 3 - 4 minutes. Sprinkle in the ground turmeric and cook for a minute or two. Empty both forms of corn into the pan and pour in the stock. Drop in the fresh bay leaf and bring the liquid to a boil. Lower the heat, clamp on lid and simmer for 20 minutes or till the potato is tender. Turn off the heat, retrieve the bay leaf and blitz the mix to as velvety an emulsion as you can muster; the corn kernels are recalcitrant little devils. I find it impossible to yield a soup of superlative smoothness.
Return to saucepan, add the cream and nutmeg. Simmer for around 3 minutes but do not boil. Season to your fancy, ladle into two bowls and serve up. If you're not quite so urgently desk-bound, you could transmute this into a corn cappuccino by christening it with a cloud of frothed warm milk. Grate over a little nutmeg and that's that.
I eat this with nuked-then-buttered frozen bread rolls.
Ingredients
