Spicy Corn Soup

It was a cold, blustery day in Las Vegas. Windy?? Vegas?? Shocker!! But it was slightly windier than normal and that always makes me want soup. I love soups! Alex loves soups! And usually soup season starts about October and runs through March. Other months it just seems too hot to eat soup. And with Alex being gone for most of soup season, he's lucky it was cold today because I think he has only had 2 soups since being home. And maybe you are of the mindset that anytime is a good time for soup...but I am not! I mean if you eat it all the time it isn't special when you do make it. What would there be to look forward to if I made soup all the time?? It's like Thanksgiving...if you make roasted turkey once a month or more, you wouldn't want turket for Thanksgiving and then you would just be the bum who didn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving....kinda like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. And you know I make sense here!

But I digress....back to soup. Tonight was a mostly vegetarian meal. Mostly vegetarian?? Yep, it's a new food phenomenon I'm trying to start! Ok, maybe not....it just means I cooked a couple of slices of bacon, rendered out the fat and used that to saute my vegetables in and then sprinkled on top of finished soup. But I will warn you, this soup packs a nice heat punch. And BE CAREFUL! If you get too much chipotle in your soup, it will be inedible. If you are unfamiliar with chipotles less is more!! You can always add more.

3-4 ears of corn, kernels stripped off*

4 slices of bacon

2 ribs of celery, diced

1 russet potato, peeled and diced

1/4-1/2 chipotle pepper, pureed or finely diced**

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1-2t thyme

salt and pepper

3-4c chicken or vegetable broth

1-2c heavy cream or mexican crema

Garnishes: sliced scallions, chopped parsley, lime wedges, queso fresco or cotija***

*The best way to strip kernels off the cob is to get out a bundt pan and a baking dish. Place the bundt pan on the baking dish. Place a whole ear of corn, stalk end down, into the hole on bundt pan. Using a sharp knife cut down to remove kernels, letting the bundt pan catch  most of the kernels.

**If you are like me and do not use chipotles a whole lot here is a great tip to keep your chipotles instead of wasting a whole can. Line a baking dish with parchment or wax paper. Place chipotles, one at a time on the paper leaving space in between. Spoon remaining adobo sauce evenly over each pepper. Place in your freezer until completely frozen. Take frozen peppers and place in a ziploc bag for individual uses later. One warning: your ice will taste like chipotles, so throw out! Anything your freezer bags sits near in other freezer bags might taste like chipotles over time....so caution!!

***queso fresco or cotija?? OH YEAH!! It is fabulous! Me and Alex love this stuff. The cheddars we Americans put on our tacos is an abomination the Hispanics. This is what they use. It comes in a thick round disk and crumbles easily. Queso fresco is milder while Cotija is saltier with slightly more flavor. Both equally delicious though! Highly recommend trying it if you can find it. It is all over the place out here, but theres a lot of Hispanics in the area.....

I accidentally ripped open before taking a picture...whoops!

Nicely crumbled

Take your bacon and cut in half width wise. Then cut into strips length-wise. After this you can dice your bacon. This allows your bacon to cook evenly and crisp up nicely. You also don't have to try and crumble hot greasy bacon. Add diced bacon to large pot over medium heat. Once nice and cripsy, remove from pan and drain. If there is too much bacon fat, pour some out. Saute onion, garlic, celery, and potato until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add bay, thyme, salt and pepper. Saute another minute. Add chipotle and cook for anouther couple of minutes. Add chicken stock and bring up to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until veggies are cooked through. Once veggies are cooked, add corn. For thicker soup puree 1/3 of the corn mixture. Cook another 5 minutes.

Turn off heat and add your heavy cream or crema. Mix into soup and you are ready to serve! Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with cooked bacon, sliced scallions, crumbled cheese, and chopped parsley.

At the last minute I decided to add the lime wedge. I had some in the fridge so why not?? Alex was very nervous and didn't try it. He opted to put his lime in his beer instead! But I decided to be adventurous!

I tried the soup without the lime first to see if the acid would be good in it. I deemed it would be good, so I squeezed my llime slowly into my bowl of soup. So if you like this kind of stuff and are willing....try the lime!! This is in Alex's top 5 soups I make. I believe he even had me make it for his birthday one year. Needless to say we enjoyed dinner tonight. Hope you enjoy it too!!