Corn Chowder

I harvested a lot of corn the other day.  Whether it's my cooking methods, or the corn was left on the stalks too long, or just the way with Butter and Sugar corn, I find it a bit gummy to eat as corn on the cob.  It really sticks to one's teeth!

So, I cooked it, cut it off the cobs, froze some and made chowder with two of the ears.  The gumminess isn't noticeable this way!

 Here's my recipe.  I don't think the amounts of the vegetables are cut in stone, I just eye-balled it.

Corn Chowder

*2 or 3 slices of bacon

*1 cup chopped red pepper

*1/2 cup chopped onion

*3 cloves minced garlic

*2 cups fresh corn kernels

*2 TBS water, divided into 1 TBS amounts

*1/2 tsp. salt

*1 TBS flour

*2 cups chicken broth (you could use vegetable broth, skip the bacon and make it vegetarian chowder), divided into 1/4 cup and 1 3/4 cups

*1/4 cup white wine

*1 - 1 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes 

*3 sprigs of fresh thyme

*1/4 cup milk or half-and-half (I used milk_

*1/2 TBS butter or margarine

*Cook bacon and set aside to cool, then crumble and save until serving.  Drain pan, but leave in a few TBS of drippings.

*Add pepper, onion and garlic to the pan, stirring until brown and tender.  Remove from pan.

*Add corn, 1 TBS water and salt, stirring until corn is browned a bit.

*Add in other 1 TBS water and pepper mixture to corn. 

*Stir in flour, stir constantly for 1 minute.  

*Add 1/4 cup broth and wine, stir for 1 minute to dislodge browned bits from pan.  

*Stir in potatoes, thyme, and rest of broth.

*Cover, bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer until potatoes are just tender.

At this point I turned it off until closer to dinner time. Or, proceed with the instructions.

*Discard thyme.  Put two cups of soup in a blender, vent for steam (mine was cooled already, so I didn't have to do that step), puree until smooth.  

*Return it to the pot and stir in milk or half-and-half, and margarine (or butter).  

*Serve with bacon sprinkled on top.  Makes four servings of about 1 cup each. 

 

 The finished product, ready to eat with a side of French bread.

I think it will make a better warm-you-up-inside winter chowder than summer fare. 

It's colors even scream "AUTUMN!" to me.