Spicy Mexican Corn Bisque

Canned corn has a pretty sordid history with me. I grew up with mostly home-cooked dinners and lunches. At school, if it happened to be pizza day or taco boat day my mom would give me money to buy school lunch. That was when I tasted canned corn for the first time. Even as a child I remember turning up my nose at its canned taste. It's not that I was a food snob (totally not), just that I was only fed fresh or frozen corn. Most canned things left a bad impression on me, which is why I was so excited to take on the challenge of producing a very diverse Fiesta in a Can menu for September's Foodbuzz 24x24. My very first thought was that I wanted to make a Mexican flavored canned corn bisque.

Going back to the food snob thing, I received as a gift for my fourteenth birthday three cookbooks (which I still have today): Rachel Ray's first 30 Minute Meals cookbook, Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons dessert book, and a very beloved Mexican cookbook Classic Mexican Cuisine by Jane Milton. So I was not a food snob, but I totally loved to cook and bake. The classic corn soup got my attention (along with the fresh salsa, tortilla soup, fried plantains, etc.), and I made it for dinner one night...good but not great. It was a recipe for a plain old corn soup using a ton of roasted red pepper. That was many years ago and I hadn't made corn soup since until last week. Using canned corn sounded like a crazy challenge. Spicing it up with some mexican flavor sounded like fun. I came up with this recipe which is very loosely based on the original, and I have to say it actually came out pretty darn good. In fact, one person even said it was their favorite dish. So there you have it, a perfectly edible and possibly delicious corn soup made from canned corn and spiced up with a ton of mexican flavor. I hope you enjoy!

Spicy Mexican Corn Bisque

2 tbl vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
2-15 ounce cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup canned evaporated milk
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the crushed red pepper, cumin, and coriander and cook another 30 seconds. Add the corn, cooking another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to a food processor with a little chicken stock. Puree until smooth. Return to the pan, add the rest of the chicken stock, and simmer another 10 minutes. Add the evaporated milk and salt and pepper to taste. Serve.