Corn soup with roasted Ancho Magnifico peppers
Ingredients:
- 4 ears of corn, still wrapped in their husks (if they aren't, wrap them in foil before roasting them) and with theirs silks attached
- 2 Ancho Magnifico peppers
- olive oil
- a shallot (or half of a small onion), thinly sliced
- 1 cup of homemade chicken stock, or vegetarian option
- a small potato (about 3 oz.), scrubbed and coarsely grated
- water, as needed
- sea salt, to taste
- fresh chives
Prehear oven to 450 F. Place corn on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool, then remove the husks and silk. Working on a shallow bowl or pyrex dish, use a knife to separate kernels and scrapings from the cob. This page from bon appetít describes precisely the way I do this with the knife. (Save the empty cobs to make stock or broth.)
Roast the Ancho Magnifico peppers at 375 F. Place them in a paper bag or plastic container until cool, then remove skin and seeds.
Warm some olive oil in a soup pot. Add the shallot (or onion) and cook briefly, then add the stock and cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the corn and potato, and 2-3 cups of water, enough to barely cover the corn. Note: The quantity of water depends on the desired thickness of the soup and the amount of corn obtained from the ears, so adjust it as needed.
Bring to a boil and cook, loosely covered, for 7 minutes. Add the peppers. Purée the soup with the immersion blender and then push it through a mesh strainer. Bring the soup back to boiling and simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Shortly before serving the soup, reheat it and adjust the salt. Serve topped with snipped fresh chives.
