Why It Works
- Using whole cobs in the pressure cooker draws out extra flavor and starch from them, making your corn soup super corny and rich.
- The soup comes together in under half an hour.
Come mid-summer, there's nothing I like more—with perhaps the exception of perfect tomatoes. But perfect tomatoes are fewer and farther between than great ears of corn. My wife, Adri, and I eat corn nearly every day when it's in season.
There's nothing that beats the simple, sweet pleasure of corn on the cob, but a good corn soup comes in a close second. As an added benefit, it also eliminates the need to pick at your teeth to remove stray corn skins after you're done with it, an act that is as annoying for the picker as it is unsexy for the one who must observe the picker in the act of picking. In other words, corn soup is the corn preparation of choice for date nights.
The real key to a good corn soup lies in extracting as much flavor as possible out of those cobs. Sure, there are plenty of sweet juices and starch in the kernels themselves, but throw away the cobs and you're tossing flavor right into the compost bin. My traditionalcorn chowder recipecalls for you to scrape excess corn milk out of the cobs with the back of a knife, then also make a quick stock flavored with those spent cobs. It works well, but I wondered if my pressure cooker might make it work even better.
As I discovered a while back, the pressure cooker is the ideal piece of kitchen equipment for makingdeeply flavorful chicken stock in a fraction of the time. Stock cooked in a pressure cooker extracts flavor from chicken bones in less than 20% of the time it takes on the stovetop, and it getsmoreflavor out of them to boot. If it works for my chicken, why not for my corn?
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I made two batches of corn soup side by side. For the first, I made a quick stock on the stovetop by simmering empty corn cobs in store-bought chicken stock, then used that stock to finish off my soup, which also included sautéed leeks and garlic, corn kernels, bay leaves, and tarragon stems. The second batch I made by throwing the corn cobs into a pressure cooker with chicken stock and the remaining ingredients from the get-go.
There was no doubt about it: The version made in the pressure cooker had a more intense corn aroma and richer texture due to the starch extracted from the cobs. Not only that, but I found that using the pressure cooker completely eliminated the need to scrape out the corn milk from the cobs—plenty of starchy liquid comes out on its own. So much, in fact, that even without a thickener like flour or potato, this corn soup comes out as thick and rich as heavy cream, despite having only a couple of tablespoons of butter in the whole batch.
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After cooking on high pressure for 15 minutes, I discarded the spent cobs, tarragon stems, and bay leaves, then puréedthe rest together in a blender, seasoning with a touch of salt and pepper. For extra smoothness, I pushed the entire concoction through a fine mesh strainer.
The resulting golden liquid tasted more like corn than corn itself. It was corn compressed, multiplied, and intensified.
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I was blown away by how intense the flavor of this soup was. Even after I'd thinned it out with some additional stock, it was still the corniest corn soup I'd ever had. I served mine with some chopped tarragon, chopped chives, and a drizzle of olive oil, along with a few raw corn kernels for that fresh crunch.
My wife got hers with chunks of crab meat for an extra treat. This is not because I don't also love crab (I do), but because, all corniness aside, I know how powerful a few well-placed and inexpensive bribes can be in the complicated commerce of marital bliss.
August 2015
Recipe Details
Pressure Cooker Corn Soup Recipe
Active15 mins
Total30 mins
Serves4to 6 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced
6 ears of corn, kernels cut off from cobs, cobs split in half and reserved
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs tarragon, leaves minced, stems reserved separately
Up to 1 quarthomemadeor store-bought low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving
Directions
Melt butter over medium heat in a pressure cooker. Add leeks and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until softened but not browned, about 4 minutes.
Add corn with cobs, bay leaves, tarragon stems, and enough chicken stock to barely cover corn (the cobs might still be sticking out a bit). Stir to combine. Seal pressure cooker and bring to high pressure. Cook for 15 minutes. Release pressure using quick-release method and uncover. Discard corn cobs, bay leaves, and tarragon stems.
Working in batches, transfer mixture to the jar of a blender. To prevent the blender lid from exploding, remove the central lid and cover the space with a folded kitchen towel. Start blender slowly and gradually increase speed to high. Blend until completely smooth, adding more chicken stock or water as necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper and press through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot. Repeat with remaining soup.
Serve soup immediately with minced tarragon leaves and chives and a drizzle of olive oil, or chill and serve cold. (Once chilled, you can adjust the texture by whisking in water a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.)
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Special Equipment
Electric or stovetop pressure cooker (get our full review); blender
Read More
- Pressure Cooker Corn Risotto
- The Best Way to Cut Corn Kernels From the Cob
- Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole
- Soups
- Pressure Cooker
- Corn
- Vegetable Mains
- Summer Mains
