Roasted Corn Soup with Barbeque Short Ribs

This particular recipe is actually two separate courses rolled into one.

Starting with the short ribs:

- Season ribs with salt and pepper (8 small ribs total will do, approx. 2+ lbs.)
- Add ribs to hot pan with olive oil, searing on all sides until dark, but not burned
- Remove ribs from pan, drain excess oil and add one small, diced onion
- Sweat onion until translucent, about 4-5 minutes
- Add the following ingredients to the onion (I just eye-balled the amounts, so depending on your tastes, do what you want)

1 c. Ketchup
1/4 c. White Wine Vinegar
1/4 c. Worchestershire Sauce
Brown Sugar
Hot Sauce
Cumin
Minced Garlic

- Once these ingredients are mixed thoroughly, add the ribs into the mixture and cover
- Simmer on low heat for at least 90 minutes, flipping ribs every half hour or so. The longer you cook them, the more tender (tenderer?) they'll be
- Remove ribs from the sauce and let cool. Using two forks, pull the meat from the ribs and set aside

If you let the sauce cool for an extended period of time as I did , skim the excess oil and fat from the top once it solidifies. Then reduce the sauce until thick. Make sure to taste it periodically to check on the seasoning and balance of flavors.

Now for the corn soup bit:

- Soak 8 ears of corn in cold water while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Dry off the corn and place on the oven rack
- Roast for about 15-20 minutes or until the kernels start to gain some color
- Let corn cool, then cut the kernels off making sure to get all the 'milk' from the ear

- In a soup pot, add olive oil and sweat down celery, onion, jalapeno and garlic
- Cook for about 8-10 minutes on medium heat
- Add one large roasted red pepper (I roasted it myself, but feel free to use store bought)
- Add all the corn, then 4-5 cups of stock (Chicken or Vegetable will do)
- Bring to a boil, add heavy cream then reduce the heat to low and cover pot
- Simmer for 90 minutes, but as with the ribs, longer is better

Remove from heat, check the seasoning (just salt and pepper will do, but i snuck some ground coriander in as well) and either using a blender or hand blender, blend until smooth. You'll most likely have to strain it further because the corn kernels can get on the grainy side.

Once strained, add the shredded short ribs and garnish with the reduced barbeque sauce and some cilantro.



Based on the recipe, you can see it is a pretty time consuming process. I broke it down into 2 nights, which gave both the soup and ribs time to develop their flavors.

Enjoy......