Corn & Mushroom Soup

Fall is near. The leaves have started to turn, the weather has become noticeably more comfortable, and football season is upon us. I love, love, love this time of year! I can live on soup so as soon as it is comfortable enough to make some, I do!

This is a great transition season soup. It’s not too heavy, corn is reminiscent of summer, and it goes well with a white wine. It’s not quite the chowder I had in mind (if you “like” me on Facebook you may have seen I mentioned chowder). Not my favorite soup, I save that for Lentil which I will post some day, I swear. But it was good. Especially with the bacon and mushrooms on top. In fact, I think it would be much less tasty without the mushrooms and bacon.

We saved several corn cobs over the summer and froze them to make corn stock. Don’t fret if you didn’t plan way ahead like me. I’m a dork like that. Some of you may still be able to find fresh corn and if so…lucky you! The corn stock is totally worth the extra step. It smells so intoxicating. Who knew those little cobs had so much flavor?

This recipe is from Michael Symon’s book “Live to Cook,”which is on my wish list. Along with about 15 other cook books.

Corn and Mushroom Soup

Recipe from Michael Symon, found on “Eats Well with Others”

Difficulty: Easy

Time: Hands on 20 to 30 mins total, 1 to 2 hours for simmering

Ingredients

Corn Cob Stock 

• 6 ears of corn
• 1 red onion, chopped (I used a yellow because that’s all I had)
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1 tsp salt

Soup

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 recipe seared wild mushrooms (take 1 lb of mixed wild mushrooms, saute them with olive oil, salt, thyme, shallots and garlic)
• 1/2 cup crumbled, cooked bacon

Notes: I did things a bit differently based on my ingredients. I had frozen cobs that I had saved so I just used frozen corn kernels. If you don’t have corn cobs, just omit the cobs and use frozen kernels but still enhance your stock with the onion, garlic, thyme, and coriander. I sautéed the mushrooms (I used cremini but really wanted some shitake!) with the bacon. Delicious. I also used whole milk in place of the heavy cream and added an onion. Instead of thyme in the soup, I used sage because I wanted a little more hint of fall in the soup. The point of the story is….play with your ingredients to make the soup the way you want it!

Directions

1. Cut the corn from the cobs and set aside.

2. Place the cobs into a large pot with the onion, garlic, thyme, coriander, stock, and salt. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain the liquid through a mesh strainer, discarding the solids. You should have about 4 cups. Use immediately or store in refrigerator overnight.

3. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, a pinch of salt and sweat for a couple of minutes. Add the corn kernels and sweat for another couple of minutes. Add the thyme (or sage, or oregano….), stock, and milk and simmer for another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, sauté your mushrooms and bacon together.

4. Scoop out about 1 cup of the corn kernels and set aside. Puree the remaining soup with whatever tool you have…immersion blender, food processor, etc. Return the kernels to the soup.

5. Garnish with mushrooms and bacon. Enjoy!

 

Savory Scones – Bacon, Onions, and Gruyere

I’ve made scones many a times. I almost always make cranberry orange. I love cranberries and I love the buttery goodness of a scone. This time, however, my hubby requested I make savory scones for his students on the first day of class. I’ve talked of making savory scones (on that long list of Things To Make. I should write that list down someday) but just never did until now!

Making savory scones isn’t really much different than sweet. You just add different goodies at the end. The rest is the same. This particular recipe I added pepper with the dry and a pinch less sugar, but otherwise, the base is essentially the same. Which means if you don’t want savory scones, you can still use this recipe and just add whatever you desire!

These turned out really, really yummy. In fact, people scarfed these down faster than my sweet scones! Perhaps it was the bacon? Or maybe that it was something different? Really all that matters is people enjoyed these immensely. Which makes me happy!

I didn’t measure my bacon, onions, or cheese. But here’s the suggested amounts:

• 45 g (1/3 cup) Caramelized onions
• 45 g (1/3 cup) Cooked Bacon
• 40 g (1/4 cup) Gruyere

I cooked my bacon first then used the bacon fat to cook the onions:

Let those cool and drain on a paper towel and continue on with the recipe.

Bacon and Caramelized Onion Scones with Gruyere

Recipe from Ciril Hitz Baking Artisan Breads and Pastries

• 400 g (3 1/4 cup) All purpose Flour or Bread Flour (I prefer half each)
• 4 g (1/2 tsp) Salt
• 1 g (1/4 tsp) Pepper (omit if using a sweet filling)
• 56 g (1/4 cup) Sugar
• 24 g (2 TB) Baking powder
• 148 g (10 TB) Unsweetened Butter, Cold
• 1 Egg
• 1 Egg white (save the yolk for egg wash)
• 230 g (1 cup) Buttermilk
• Egg wash, as needed

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. Cut the butter into cubes, but keep cold. If using a mixer, mix the butter into the flour using a paddle attachment. If not using a mixer, use your hands or a pastry cutter. Work the butter in until it is the texture of cornmeal. Be careful not to over mix.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. Slowly add the liquids to the flour mixture. Mix just until combined!

5. Move your dough to a work bench and get ready to knead! Get your things together before this step: Rolling pin, dough cutter, dowels, egg wash, pan with silpat or parchment, and knife or pizza wheel. And flour for dusting. Very important.

6. Work your dough into a nice ball. It will be pretty sticky at this point so you will need flour. Knead it by folding it over on itself, then rotate 90 degrees and repeat. This will create layers which will make your dough flaky.

7. Once the dough has come together fairly well, add the onions and bacon and knead to work it in. You may want to do this in batches.

8. Now that all the goodies are worked into the dough, roll out the dough to 1/2″. This is where you need the dowels. Again, if you don’t have dowels, use a ruler.

9. When you are at 1/2″, use your knife or pizza wheel to cut triangle. I like to cut squares and then triangles.

10. Move to your pan. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with the cheese.

11. Bake until golden, which should take 15 to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!