Summer Corn Chowder

This blog has been set up, ready to be posted to, for about a year and a half now. I've taken pictures of the preparation of many meals, and those pictures sit neatly stored away in folders, awaiting posts to be written about them. I've composed countless entries in my head that have never been typed up. Sure, I'm busy with two kids, but I'm also an excellent procrastinator. I've finally decided that that's gone on long enough. What inspired me to finally get over it and make a post? Sweet summer corn, and plenty of it.

My little family (husband Johnny, kids Kieran, 4, and Declan, 1) has been living with my parents for the past 6 months, to save up some money and work on our plan for What Comes Next. This means that I have the opportunity to cook, and plan recipes, with my mom again. And if there's one thing my mom loves, it's corn on the cob. "Knee high by the 4th of July" can be heard quite often in the months leading up to prime corn season around here. And since the good crops are starting to be upon us, we have been buying a lot of corn. So much so that I've decided it's time to get creative, especially when we grocery shop independent of each other and end up with a couple dozen ears (oops).

Since it's finally under 97°, I decided corn chowder was the only logical dinner choice (especially since we have 3 pints of heavy cream burning a hole in the fridge, the latest in our constant attempts to rotate what we get delivered from the milk man every week, always searching for the perfect order to make our regular. Spoiler: we haven't found it yet.)

Here's what I came up with. Now, I firmly believe that recipes are only suggestions, and there is plenty of room for leeway here, so go with what you like. I happen to be a huge leek and shallot fan, but regular old onions are just as good, for example. You can substitute Idaho potatoes for the red ones. This is also easily doubled for parties, and freezes well.

Cast of characters, aside from the corn:

First things's first--getting that corn off the cob. I like to use a smaller bowl in a larger bowl, upside down, and then just use a sharp knife to cut down the cob and remove the kernals. 6 ears will get you about 2 cups.

I start off with some thick-slab bacon. Pancetta, or even a smokey sausage like kielbasa or chourice would be great if you have no bacon on hand (or, of course, you can skip if you want a meat free chowder). After the fat is rendered, in go the aromatics (leeks, shallots, garlic, pepper, celery, thyme), which I like to throw in with a little bit of butter for a depth of flavor. Season these, but go easy on the salt if you use bacon or another cured meat.

A little bit of flour will bond with the fats and thicken this up, and the starch from the potatoes will help it along. With the addition of wine, heavy cream, good vegetable stock and creme fraiche, what's not to like?

Can't cook a meal without my helpful sous chefs!

Summer Corn Chowder
6 ears of fresh corn, stripped off the cob (yield: about 2 cups)
3-5 slices of bacon (depends on how much you like/how thick the bacon is)
3 leeks, whites and light green part only, halved and sliced thin
2 large shallots, diced
3-5 cloves of garlic (depends on how much you like it--I obviously like it a lot), minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3-4 stalks of celery (the heart with leaves if you have it), diced
5 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
1 bay leaf
6-7 red potatoes, diced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white wine (I use pinot grigio)
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups heavy cream
creme fraiche
fresh chopped parsley
2 TB salted butter
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preparation:
Cut all the corn off the cob and set aside. Heat 2-3 TB of olive oil in a heavy bottomed stock pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Dice the bacon and add to the oil, and render until crisp. Add in the leeks, shallots, garlic, thyme, and 2 TB butter. Cook until soft, 5-7 minutes. Add bell pepper and celery and cook 5 minutes more. Salt and pepper to taste. Once all the veggies are soft but not browned, sprinkle in 1/4 cup of flour and stir to coat. Cook for 3 minutes, to cook off the raw flour taste.

Add in a cup of white wine and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan. The mixture will thicken up and be almost paste like. Add in the veggie stock and the bay leaf and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, add in potatoes and heavy cream. Bring to a boil again and boil 6-7 minutes (this will help bring out the starch in the potatoes and thicken the chowder).

Reduce to a simmer and add in the corn. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if needed. Simmer for at least 15 minutes to combine all the flavors (I'm a big fan of simmering soups, stews and chowders very low for a longer time, to meld all the flavors. The potatoes may break down a bit, but that will just thicken the chowder and make the texture better, in my opinion. If you like your potatoes to have more integrity, by all means, don't simmer as long).

Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley. My favorite thing to have with this is just a piece of ciabatta, charred on the grill, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. But this is also excellent with a simple salad, a ham and cheese sandwich, or any grilled summer meat and vegetable you want. If you need a little kick, I like some tabasco or sriracha in this as well.  Enjoy!