Small Plates Saturday Night – Chilled Avocado Soup with Seared Chipotle Corn and Lime Cream

I’ve prepared small plates for my wife and friends on Saturday nights for years now, however it seems to have taken on more meaning during this coronavirus crisis.

I always cook during the week, and the last couple of months were no exception. Since the start of the pandemic I have cooked dinner every night, except Fridays, for my wife and children who have returned home from college and are completing the semester remotely. We’ve been eating well, and I think my cooking is one of the reasons my son left his off-campus house to return home. He is free from shopping or cooking, and gets served dinner every night so he can concentrate on studying. (My daughter too, but she was living in a dorm, relying on cafeteria food.)  Either my wife or children cook on Fridays, just to give me an evening off. I’m not complaining – I enjoy the cooking – and a respite one night a week is a welcome break.

Even though we ate dinner together every night for the past eight weeks, Saturday night dinner – small plates – stands out and is becoming a tradition with my family. We relax and enjoy dinner; I make dishes that are more like what we would get in a restaurant, which we obviously can’t visit during this time of turmoil. I serve four, five, six courses depending on the evening and it can go late into the night. Many dishes are classics I’ve been cooking for years, while others are new recipes. I rifle through the refrigerator and freezer, seeing what needs to be eaten prior to spoiling, I peruse the pantry for interesting items, and I cook based on what’s available in the garden. I search the internet for ideas, and create new recipes of my own. Some new dishes are a success and become part of my repertoire, and others don’t work out, never to be made again.

I often start with antipasto, which can be made in a flash, with jarred olives or artichokes, a few fresh fruits or vegetables, a piece of bread or a few crackers, and whatever is in the cheese drawer. It is sometimes followed by a modest salad made with fresh vegetables I have on hand. A quick and easy soup is nice, like miso, or perhaps one I made earlier, froze, and needs to be defrosted and heated. Grown up grilled cheese is always a crowd pleaser and if not, another kind of slider, sandwich, or stuffed bun is a good option. I often keep mini dinner rolls and Chinese steamed buns in the freezer for such an occasion. And then, I like a grand finale; a dish a bit fancier. Maybe a single lamb chop or small skewer of meat or chicken with a simple side or two preceding dessert.

More than the food however, Small Plates Saturday Night is about the time together. Our children are often away during the summer, and our daughter left for college in the fall, leaving my wife and me empty nesters. While they usually come home for holidays and vacations, our children have fledged the nest. They would rather be back at school finishing their semesters with their friends, however the pandemic with all its disruptions and awfulness has given us the chance to spend this time together as a family. It is a pleasure to sit, eat, and talk with our (almost) grown up children. It is an opportunity for us to be a family unit for more than a few days here and there, before they return to college, find jobs in places unknown, travel the world, find partners, and otherwise move on with their lives.

Chilled Avocado Soup with Seared Chipotle Corn and Lime Cream

This recipe, modified from Cooking Light magazine, is a great addition to any small plates menu, and one that is sure to please your guests. It is a study in contrasts. The creaminess of the soup balances with the pop of the seared fresh corn. The heat of the corn – both in temperature and spiciness – is tamed by the coolness of the lime cream. The original recipe includes shrimp, which I now leave out, as my wife discovered she is allergic to it. The dish does not suffer tremendously from its absence.

A small plates meal will be more pleasant if most components can be prepped ahead of time, and that is easy with this dish. Prepare and chill the soup and lime cream a few hours prior to dinner. Then sear the corn or reheat it before you are ready to serve.

30 minutes, serves 6 as part of a small plates meal

For the soup:

3 cups chicken broth

2 ripe Haas avocados, peeled and diced

3 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped

3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

½ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

For the lime cream:

¾ cup sour cream

2 Tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped

1 tsp. lime zest

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

For the corn:

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup corn cut from 2 ears

¼ cup red onion, finely chopped

½ tsp. cumin

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (from a can), diced, plus 1 Tbsp. adobo sauce (store the remainder in a glass jar in the refrigerator for another use)

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1. Zest a lime to get 1 teaspoon of zest and set aside. Juice a lime or two for a total of 4 tablespoons of juice and set aside.
2. Make the soup. Combine all soup ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Put in a plastic container with a lid and chill until ready to serve. Can be made a few hours ahead.
3. Make the lime cream. Stir all lime cream ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Can be made a few hours ahead.
4. Make the corn. Heat oil in a 10 inch skillet on high and add corn, onion, cumin, pepper, and salt. Mix together and heat for about a minute. (If you want to use shrimp, coat a half pound of peeled, deveined, medium shrimp in cumin, pepper, and salt, and cook in oil for a minute or two before adding corn and onions.) Add chipotle pepper with adobo and garlic, stir, and cook until corn is crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in lime juice and remove from heat. Corn should be made or reheated just prior to serving so it is hot.
5. To serve, divide soup among 6 small bowls. Top soup with lime cream and corn, divided equally among the bowls.

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