Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Rosie Makes A Nice Corn Bisque.

The temperature yesterday dropped from the mid-forties to below freezing by the afternoon. And what excitement. It started SNOWING! I thought a nice bisque would make a lovely meal for the Hawthornes tonight. And here's more snow.
My ingredients:
1 cup + heavy cream
2 cups FROZEN corn
 cup chicken stock
(That's my homemade but you could use reduced sodium stock.)
 1 onion
 4 cloves garlic
white wine
1 ancho chili
An ancho chili is a deep reddish brown dried chili with a sweet, not too hot flavor. They're wrinkled, flat, and heart shaped and are the sweetest of the dried chilis. When fresh, it's called a poblano.
To prepare the ancho chili, I poured boiling water over top and used a weight to submerge it and soaked for at least 30 minutes.
To start off, I sauteed chopped onions and minced garlic in butter. Added salt and pepper and set aside.
I poured the heavy cream in a saucepan and added a cup of my chicken consomme.
Then I added a cup of white wine and brought it to a boil then set the heat to low.
I sauteed the corn in butter until almost brown.
Cream/stock/wine mixture at top. Corn sauteeing in middle. Onions and garlic at bottom.
After soaking the ancho chili in the water, I put it in my Magic Bullet with a little bit of the soaking water and pureed it and added it to the cream mixture.
The corn is ready, so I added the onions and garlic to it.
Next, the corn mixture went into the cream.
I decided to chop up a potato and add that for extra starch thickening.
I cooked the bisque for about 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
I used my immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender. If you do, don't fill it with hot liquid. Puree maybe half at a time.
Taking pictures and immersion blending at the same time sometimes doesn't work very well.
Last night, I sprinkled the corn bisque with some croutons, a bit of cheddar cheese, and creme fraiche and garnished with some large heads-on shrimp Mr. Hawthorne found at Harris Teeter for $4.99/pound.
And today for lunch, I heated up some more and sprinkled some green onions over top. The bisque was sweet from the corn. It had a nice smoky flavor from the ancho chili, richness from the cream, and a lovely creamy texture thickened by the starches in the corn and the potato. Another winner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious. Did the immersion blender make straining the bisque unnecessary?

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Xmaskatie, it was very smooth and I didn't think needed any straining.