JT enjoyed a soup similar to this at the Ritz Carlton Toca in Toronto on his birthday and I told him I would replicate it as soon as the Ontario corn was available.
To be truthful, I made this very soup when our dear friends Barb and Kevin (Profiteroles and Ponytails) spent a weekend at the cottage, but I forgot to take photos and I know better than to post a recipe sans photos so I had to make it again, this time with notes and photos! The soup I made for Barb and Kevin used a combination of white corn and fresh Peaches and Cream Corn. The white corn was part of my shopping spree with Chgo John From the Bartolini Kitchens. I didn’t include the white corn in this recipe because I found it too starchy tasting and decided it didn’t enhance the soup at all, so my second attempt used only fresh Peaches and Cream Ontario Corn.
It’s creamed but there is not a spot of cream in it; the inherent texture of the corn makes it velvety smooth and you really don’t need cream at all.
Crab and corn are a match made in heaven and turns this simple soup into a meal, avocado added to anything really ups the ante! We grilled the corn on a charcoal grill to enhance the smoky flavour, but if you can’t grill it, just add it to the pot and cook the kernels a bit longer. Frozen corn also works well in a pinch, but shhhhhh — that’s our little secret!
Creamed Corn Chowder with Avocado and Crab
(makes about 3 to 4 cups depending on how thick you wish the soup to be)
Ingredients:
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup Vidalia onion finely chopped
- 2 1/2 cups charcoal grilled corn
- 1 bacon rasher
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (optional if you can’t grill the corn)
- 1 tin crab meat with whole legs
- 1/2 small avocado, in cubes and sprinkled with lime juice
- juice of one lime
- 2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 500-1,000 mL vegetable or chicken stock
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt to taste
Directions:
- Grill fresh corn on a charcoal grill. Slice off kernels and reserve.
- Heat a pan with olive oil and sauté the bacon adding the onions and cooking until translucent, add the garlic, cumin and smoked paprika (if using).
- Add all the corn kernels but 1/2 cup (set aside for the garnish)
- Add stock and purée until smooth with an immersion blender, adding stock until desired thickness is achieved. Season with sea salt to taste.
- Press through a fine sieve.
- In a small bowl, combine drained crab, corn, cubed avocado, chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. Season with sea salt to taste. Stir well.
- Ladle hot soup into bowls and garnish with a generous spoonful of the crab mixture in the centre. Serve with a grilled crostini on a deck over looking the lake. That last bit is optional, but it does enhance the experience.
We’ve been spending a lot of time at the cottage this August and I thought I’d share a few of the meals we’ve been enjoying. Cottage is for laid back times, but that doesn’t mean soup out of a can or even ready made products, for me it’s time to really enjoy having time to do things right.
The pulled pork recipe can be found here.
Click here. for this tasty recipe.
Links can be found here and here.
Muligatawny recipe can be found here.
Shakshuka recipe can be found here.
I made the BBQ sauce on the fly, so there is no recipe!
What a lovely soup! I love that it’s thick and creamy without the cream! With cooler fall weather coming (which is hard to imagine on a 33 degree September day), I can’t wait to make some hearty soups just like this one!
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Hi Amber, I think you would love this delicious soup that takes full advantage of the sweet fall corn.
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I’ll have the corn and crab soup for a starter, some of those crostini with a martini, and the pulled pork flatbread, please. But where is dessert? 🙂
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Hi Betsy, I’d love to serve these to you by our lake; we skip dessert most times unless we have company, it saves on the calories.
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Just looking at the ingredients list of this recipe sounds like heaven to me.
I love creamy corn and I love crabs. It can’t get much better 🙂
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Thanks Daniela, they certainly do make a very tasty combination.
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Creamed corn and crab is a super combo for soup – but adding cubes of avocado – brilliant! Am also going to have to try the scallop crostini with the avocado paste. All the dishes look amazing.
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Thank you kindly Claire, the avocado adds such a lovely texture to the soup and the crab is a natural partner. I hope you enjoy the scallop crostini with avocado paste, it really partners well.
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Beautiful cottage food Eva (anywhere food!) and I’m with Sissi, you should consider putting together a cottage manual/cookbook — you have great packing tips, reno experience and recipes. I bet it would be a hit! I especially love the photo of the water… serene and captivating.
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Thank you kindly Kelly (BTW LOVE your new photo). I am actually seriously considering Sissi’s idea, I will look into it this week. It will make a nice project while I’m looking for work.
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Now who could resist a corn chowder with crab (and avocado!)…definitely not me! And all the other meals you shared from your time at your cottage look terrific, too. We make nothing nearly as lovely when we’re on vacation!
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Hi Liz, thank you for your lovely words. I really enjoy being up there and cooking with more limited resources than I have in the city. When I’m not cooking, I’m thinking about cooking or eating.
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Eva, what a wonderful feast! I would love to taste all of these dishes (though as a pork fan I would definitely start with pulled pork tenderloin…). Most people cook very simple standard food when on holidays, so I’m impressed by all the sophisticated elegant meals that come out of your cottage kitchen. You should consider writing a book entitled “Cooking at the Cottage”. I’m serious!
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Hi Sissi, I thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I am indeed considering your suggestion with great seriousness. I will definitely mention you in the foreward!
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You always eat and cook such delicious things Eva! And there’s a variety of corn called Peaches and Cream? Interesting! 😀
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Hi Lorraine, next time you plan a visit to Canada you MUST come to Toronto and leave some time to come to the lake with us! Experiencing Ontario’s north is something special indeed. The corn is called such because the kernels range from strong yellow to almost white, and they are super sweet.
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sounds fantastically wholesome!!
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Thanks Jen.
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Hi Eva, is it just me or are the links broken for the mulligatawny and shakshuka recipes? Fantastic meals you’ve been having – I avoid anything with crab (unless I make it myself) because I’m sick of being bitterly disappointed when they serve up something with surimi!! Even “good” restaurants pull this on me!
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Thanks for the heads up, the links were indeed broken but I’ve fixed them now.
Serving surimi in place of real crab is disgusting! I would definitely send it back with terse words.
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Yeah – I just don’t bother ordering “crab” now because I just assume it’s gonna end up being surimi… damn stuff. I’d ban it if I could!
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Oh wow, I am loving your deck! Enjoy your cottage. Sounds like you have worked so hard! And so many beautiful recipes. Thank you so much for sharing.
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Good that you can enjoy the cottage now that the work is done. You both put in quite a bit of sweat equity and it’s nice that you’ve time to still enjoy it this season. All of these dishes sure look good, Eva. Pulled pork cooked in a slow cooker is such a good idea, the leftovers being worth their weight in gold. Still, for me, the star is the creamed corn soup with crap & avocado. That really does sound wonderful. You sure do eat well at the cabin.
Thank you for the shout our, Eva. We really must do it again. I’ll even find an Hungarian market. 😉
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Hi John, it was my pleasure to give you the shout out; I so enjoyed our day at your favourite markets. I wanted to make a lamb popsicle recipe which called for Fenugreek and thought about your fabulous Indian grocer…sadly Bancroft has no such thing, red wine vinegar is considered exotic! I do hope that you will come to Toronto and I can take you to my favourite shops.
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This is the second time I have seen with crab and avocado, it seems like a winning combo 😀
I love your beautiful dishes here!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thanks CCU, it really is a winning combo, very delicious for sure.
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Many delicious treats, Eva..the soup looks wonderfully delicious and those pulled pork flatbread are fantastic too.
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Thank you so much Angie, that is so lovely of you. The pulled pork is definitely a favourite…I know I’ll be making it again.
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You do sound like a super organised person Eva……shuttling between homes and taking it in stride is such a feat 🙂 I don’t know which one to choose – all look equally amazing. I am a bit partial to scallops…so maybe that one. I must try that.
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Thanks Minnie, I’ve always been very organized even as a child so it definitely comes in very handy keeping house at the lake.
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YUM! I too just made corn chowder, but with green chile — I love your garnish of crab and avocado! Every ingredient sounds perfect, I can almost taste it now.
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Hi Judy, thank you for your kind words, green chili sounds like a fantastic addition to the corn, I do love the hot and sweet combo very much. I’ll have to keep it in mind for the next time I make it.
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The food at the cabin looks wonderful. I’m with you in that when I’m away I like to take things easy but that doesn’t mean eating tinned food; it just means having a little more time to pull things together. I love the look of your soup and it’s hard to believe there’s not actually any cream! xx
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Hi Charlie, thank you so much for your lovely words. I just love your new photo, you look absolutely gorgeous! Cooking at the cabin is really one of the things I look forward to the most.
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It is lovely that you have been getting to spend time at the cottage. Your soup sounds terrific…crab and avocado was a nice addition. I just did a crab and avocado combination as well.
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Hi Karen, I did see your lovely recipe and I tried to comment but I’m not sure it stuck, sometimes they don’t when I comment from up north. We’re back in the city now for another eight days and then we pick up our friends Paul and T from the airport and whisk them up to the Lake!
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So glad you are able to spend so much relaxing time at the cottage. To put together all those meals where every item must be brought in you got to be super organized. Your shopping and packing lists before leaving home must be very detailed. Just keeping tab of the shopping lists would drive me crazy.
Yes, I would love a bowl of your corn chowder, make that a large bowl, please.
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Hi Norma, yes it’s really been wonderful to spend so much time at the lake. I do have to keep my lists very detailed but I tend to save them as excel spreadsheets complete with shopping lists so I’m not having to reinvent it every time. I’ve saved them in terms of number of days and most of the meal plans make use of at least one component of a previous meal, reinvented of course, it allows us to use up the left overs and not have to bring food back to the city!
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Oh Eva, it all looks so wonderfully summery and relaxing. Glass of wine in one hand, hors d’oeuvres in the other, bliss.
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Hi David, yes it is quite wonderful.
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We loved the soup Eva so I will have to try making it sometime. This version looks chock full of corn and super yummy too, We had such a wonderful time at the cottage — but it already feels like a long time ago. We are just back from a week in Parry Sound. I certainly didn’t prepare a line up of food like you obviously have from all of your great photos! You have been eating well my friend! Talk soon!
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Hi Barb, thanks so much we really enjoyed having you and Kevin up; next year we’ll have to try for two nights! I served the corn soup to Kim and Chloe this past weekend and it was well enjoyed. I’ll have to make a large batch and freeze, but first I need to clean out the freezer! Yes we do seem to eat like kings and queen’s at the cottage.
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I don’t know which of the dishes above I liked better. I’ve always wanted to make a mulligatawny soup but that Caesar with Canadian bacon and shards of parmesan looks SO good. And of course, the creamed corn soup. I have some grilled corn kernels in my freezer though I don’t think the bicolour corn I bought was peaches and cream.
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Hi Maria, thank you for your kind words; that deconstructed Caesar is really a favourite, the grilled Romaine is just incredibly tasty and I’ve perfected my Caesar dressing recipe too, which I’ll have to repost one of these days. The grilled corn would be perfect whether it’s peaches and cream or not— such a tasty fall dish.
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Wow, so many wonderful dishes. I’d have a hard time keeping up with where I was if I traveled between homes like you two do. How wonderful for you.
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Thank you kindly Maureen, it is very nice to be able to get away at such a relaxing venue.
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