Max is spending a month with me and the first thing he asked me when he got here was "could we make corn chowder?" "Of course!" I said.
It's' an easy soup to make and when I make it, it's completely vegetarian. That's a big plus in the restaurant business when a lot of your customers are vegetarians.
Max is my 9 year old grandson for those of you that don't know me. He used to come to the cafe and walk around like he owned the place. Max and my other grandson Logan loved to play in the basement. It had all kinds of nooks and crannies. But they also loved to help me in the kitchen. Max is finally old enough that I can start teaching him how to cook from beginning to end with out him losing interest.
So tonight we made corn chowder, and as you can see by the pictures, Max loved every minute of it. From beginning to end.
Teri
Corn Chowder
1 stick of butter
1 small onion
1 carrot (8 small carrots)
1 celery stalk
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of flour
3 cups of extra sweet corn
3 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable)
2 cups of 1/2 & 1/2
nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste
Notes:
I use butter. Especially when a recipe calls for it. Never margarine. You must use butter for this recipe!!
I only had heavy cream or 2% milk. I didn't have 1/2 & 1/2. So I used half heavy cream and half 2% milk. You could probably use just the 2% milk, but you wouldn't have the same flavor.
I like my vegetables chopped up small for this soup so that you taste more of the sweet corn than anything else. But you could leave your vegetables in bigger chunks.
I like to use white corn for this because it's nice and tender and sweet. Unfortunately all I had was really sweet corn. Which was good for this soup, but not as good as the white corn. Trust me on this!!
You can use chicken stock for this soup or vegetable stock. I use vegetable stock.
Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. While butter is melting chop up onion, carrot, garlic and celery.
Add the vegetables to the melted butter and saute them until soft. Add the flour and mix until you have a paste.
Cook this mixture for about 2 minutes to cook the flour taste out. Slowly add the stock to this mixture and stir while you add so you don't get lumps. Once all of the stock is incorporated, add the 1/2 & 1/2. Stir until incorporated. Add the corn.
Add 1 tsp of nutmeg and salt & pepper to taste. Let cook for about 20 minutes so that the flavors blend together. Serve with bread.
Enjoy!!!