Scallop Corn Soup

This is a delicate, restaurant-style bisque that builds Asian aromatics into a creamy seafood soup. Sweet sea scallops and fresh corn cut from the cob get poached in fish stock, then everything goes into the blender for a velvet-smooth purée.

Ginger, rice wine, and scallions are the unexpected supporting cast. They give this soup a gentle East-meets-West character, with the ginger cutting through the richness and the rice wine adding subtle sweetness that pairs beautifully with the natural sweetness of corn and scallops.

The two-stage cooking is the key. The aromatics simmer for only a minute after the seafood is barely cooked, which preserves the bright top notes. Long-simmered aromatics would turn dull and dominate the gentle scallop flavor.

The cream and butter go in at the very end, after the puréeing and second simmer. Adding dairy before the blender would whip the cream and make a frothy, light soup instead of the silky bisque you want.

Chef Tips

• Buy dry-packed scallops, not wet-packed. Wet scallops are pumped with sodium tripolyphosphate that releases water during cooking and makes them tough.
• Cut corn from raw cobs, not frozen. The fresh corn milk that releases from cobbing adds body to the soup.
• Blend in batches if your blender is small. Cracking the lid for steam release prevents hot-soup explosions.
• Strain through a fine sieve for ultra-silky texture, the way a French restaurant would.

Variations

• Garnish with a few whole sauteed scallops floating on top of each bowl for visual drama and texture.
• Stir in 1 tablespoon of miso paste with the cream for an even more umami-rich version.
• Swap fish stock for shrimp stock made from peeled shells for a deeper seafood flavor.