Let me admit, I'm a sucker for chowders. Creamy clam chowder in a bowl of ceramic or even sour dough. Or a thick corn chowder is hard to beat. The few constants are: a creamy thick texture, some potatoes and good amounts of bacon and onion to augment the clams or corn.
Two weeks ago, I had made a creamy, but not thick, leek corn chowder whose main ingredients looked like this.
It was pretty good. My guidance was from the Chez Panisse (CP)cookbook and the Charlie Trotter's (CT) cookbook. Both restaurants have won the best restaurant in America honor in their past, so these recipes from Alice and Charlie are not to be taken lightly. But the recipes could not be more different. The CP recipe was a showcase for corn itself, and consisted of basically water, onions, corn cooked with some pureed, and salt. The CT recipe was a much more traditional hearty chowder, with bacon, potatoes, corn, heavy cream and water. I really liked that the Trotter recipe simmered the left over cops to enhance the broth.
This time, I had a lot more corn. And one of the guests had a mild wheat allergy and would occasionally minimize her wheat consumption. I was debating whether to make a thicker, cream base soup or keep it unadorned. Thick means flour which means wheat, which I decided to eschew. Plain was the choice. It would be Chez Panisse style soup this time, all about the corn.
I wanted strong corn flavor, so I used a lot of fresh corn, which also gave me many cobs to cook for a strong broth. I was uncertain about using bacon, since it is easy to over use, but Sarah's emphatic "Lot of bacon", swung the tide. I had fresh yellow potatoes (Yukon?) from the market and so we got potatoes.
I wanted the corn as tender as possible so I cooked it at the very end in the final broth, heeding Alice Water's advice not to overcook it. It looked more red than I expected due to the bacon. The soup was quite nice; the broth itself was super with lots of nice sweet corn flavor.
Some other options I might want to try would be to add a fresh herb, say either rosemary or sage.
Corn Chowder Soup
(Serves 8)
5-8 ears of fresh corn
3-6 small-medium potatoes, chopped into small (say 1/2") pieces
8 oz of bacon, cut into small pieces
1 white or non-sweet yellow onion
salt and pepper
Cut the corn off the cobs and reserve in a bowl. (I do this over a large flexible cutting board as the corn tends to spray all over the place). Place corn cobs in a large pan with water such that the cobs are covered. Bring to a boil and then simmer the cobs for 30-60 minutes, or really, as long as it takes for you to get your act together and finish the rest of the recipe. You may have to add more water.
Slice up bacon into mini sized pieces (I use scissors) and optionally remove any excess fat (still using those scissors). Cook bacon in pan, until barely done. Remove excess fat. Slice potatoes and onion into small pieces and cook with the bacon over low heat, covered, until the potatoes are done, perhaps 10 minutes.
Remove cobs from the broth and then add bacon, onions and potatoes to the broth. Salt and pepper to taste. Add cut corn and return to a boil, cooking the corn for 2-3 minutes, until cooked. Serve.
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