Corn-Sweet Potato Soup

I wanted to make a simple soup using corn for the main flavor and sweet potatoes for support and consistency. I like blended soups, so I took the usual approach of sauteeing, then simmering for a while, then blending everything. A little curry paste to add some interest and heat. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work. The consistency was wrong and the flavor uninteresting. Oh well.

Ingredients
3 ears sweet white corn
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 red jalapeno peppers, diced
1 anaheim pepper, diced
6 c water
1 tsp green curry paste
olive oil, salt, white pepper

Directions
slice the corn off the cobs. simmer the cobs in the water (the longer the better). dice and chop the other stuff (or just run the garlic and peppers through a food processor). heat the oil to medium-high in a large pot. saute the garlic and peppers for a few minutes, then add the water, cobs, corn, sweet potato, curry paste, and salt and pepper to taste. bring to a boil on high, then turn to low, cover, and simmer (the longer the better, pretty much). take the pot off the heat, remove the cobs, and let cool for a few minutes. blend to desired smoothness (or, take out half of the soup, blend it, then mix it back with the original). put the pot back on the heat and simmer on medium until the soup thickens to desired consistency. stir periodically; make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
Verdict
I could probably have just done the recipe with less water; six cups was really too much, so I boiled some of it off at the end to get the soup thicker. also, you can’t really make a blended soup with corn (I tried blending it all the way), because the skins of the kernels just don’t blend. also, I’m not really sure how much the cob-water added; I need to experiment with it more. overall, not a success. the consistency was just not good; because the corn didn’t blend all the way, it was annoyingly not-smooth, but not chunky enough to be pleasing. in terms of flavor, it wasn’t really that good. inoffensive, but not that interesting. I wanted a more intense corn flavor, and it could have used a bit more complexity to keep it interesting (bacon, probably).