Friday 2 December 2011

Corn Chowder

My favorite kind of soups are chowders.  Thick and creamy, they're best when they stick to your ribs and keep you warm for hours.

I've been looking for an excellent corn chowder to have in my personal recipe book.  I have a Poblano Corn Chowder, but something different would be nice.  I have a few corn chowders saved in my online recipe box and I figure I'll just run through them and when I find one I'll know.

I halved this recipe just in case I didn't love it, and I'm kind of glad I did.  It's definitely not a contender to make my personal recipe book.

So you take a couple of potatoes, and cut 'em up and boil them. 

When they're done, smash half of them.


At the same time, fry bacon until it's crisp.
Oh bacon - how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

Then cook the onions in the bacon grease until translucent.
PS - this smelled really really good.  Would it have been weird if THAT was my dinner?  Well, with the rest of the bacon.  Honestly - I seriously considered it.

Put the onions in a pot and add some flour.  Add in the milk and bring to a boil.  Add in the creamed corn, potatoes, salt, pepper, and bacon.  Heat through and top with a little cheddar cheese and paprika.



And serve with a sprinkle of cheddar and a slight dash of paprika.

I mean, it's not horrible, but the best thing about it is the bacon.  It's not as thick as I prefer and the creamed corn taste was really prominent. 

So, in my opinion, it wasn't really that great.

I'm glad I have chips!

Oh - and before I forget.  I think I know the reason why produce is suddenly more expensive.  They have to pay that guy.  You know - that GUY.  The one who stamps a sticker showing the "best before date" on every single piece of produce in the store?  Him.  Or her.  I'm PC that way.  And maybe it's just on the potatoes.  You know, cause the freshness factor on those rascally potatoes is tricky to figure out.
Every single potato I brought home had one of these stickers.  That's weird right?
This is the Cane Girl - signing off.

Corn Chowder I
2 pounds potatoes - peeled and cubed.
1 pound bacon
1 onion, chopped
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
8 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 (14.75 ounce) cans creamed corn
Cheddar Cheese, shredded for topping
Paprika, for topping
  1. Boil potatoes in salted water until soft.  Drain.  mash half of the potatoes and set aside.
  2. Fry the bacon until very crisp.  Crumple the bacon and set aside.  (You can see that I just chopped the bacon and then fried that way)
  3. Fry the onion in the bacon grease until translucent and soft.
  4. Dump the cooked onions into a large stockpot.  Add the flour and heat until the mixture is bubbly and the flour is well dissolved.  (Upon further reflection, I think I needed to add the bacon grease to the pot - which I didn't do, but the recipe clearly doesn't say to involve the bacon grease in any way, maybe that's why it wasn't as thick as I'd hoped?  Because the bacon grease was that essential other half of the roux that was apparently trying to happen?)
  5. Add the milk and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently.  Watch the pot carefully, as the milk may easily scorch.
  6. Once boiling, add the salt, pepper, bacon, corn, and all the potatoes.
  7. Heat soup until hot.  Serve garnished with a dash of paprika and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.
Source: Allrecipes

1 comment:

  1. Heather - I bet it wasn't that good because it had OMG!! YUCKY CREAMED corn in it. Niblets or frozen is the only way to go. Creamed corn makes me shiver and get all gaggy ..... blechhh.....sorry little one :)

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