October 27, 2009
Soup #4: Corn Chowder
This week I'm house-sitting for my parents.  My mother, as I've mentioned before, is quite the foodie.  Her kitchen is stocked with just about every kitchen appliance you could dream of, and the shelves around the house are bursting with cookbooks.  One of my favorite things to do when I housesit for her is look through all of her collections of recipes... and she has a lot!  Newspaper clippings in drawers, binders with loose-leaf pages stacked inside, notebooks from cooking classes... she's been collecting recipes since before I came into this world, and I don't think she's done much editting.  I decided that for the duration of my housesitting-stay, I would use recipes from her shelves.  That's how I came across this corn chowder recipe.  It's from Chef Greg Atkinson, who is somewhat famous here in the northwest (I'm not sure if he's known in other parts of the country, but he's a damn fine chef!)  The recipe sounded promising, as just about any recipe with bacon in the title does.  However, it did not turn out well.  I don't know if I was impatient and rushed a step, or overcooked something, or just used inadequate ingredients, but I found this soup to be bland, boring, and not very pretty--in fact, I found it so bland that I added about a teaspoon of Tony's Creole Seasoning to the pot.  It helped, but not enough for me to add this to the "keeper" pile.  Ah well, the dogs liked it just fine!!

4 c organic milk
2 c organic chicken broth
4 med (about 2 lbs) Yukon Gold potatoes
4 ounces natural smoked bacon, cut into 1/4-inch bits
1 med organic onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice
6 cloves garlic, grated on a Microplane grater
1 t fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 t dried
2 T flour
6 ears fresh, organically grown corn, husked
2 t kosher salt
1 t freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Put the milk and chicken broth in a large soup pot over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle boil.  While the mixture is heating up, scrub the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch dice.  Add the potatoes to the milk mixture, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to low.  Simmer the potatoes until they are very tender, about 15 minutes.
 
Put the diced bacon in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and cook until the bacon bits are crisp.  With a slotted spoon, lift the bacon bits out of the fat and set them aside.  In the fat left behind, saute the onion and celery until the vegetables are soft and just beginning to brown.  Stir in the garlic and thyme, then add the flour.
 
Add a ladleful of the broth and milk mixture to the sauteed vegetables and stir until smooth.  Stir in another ladleful of the milk and broth mixture, then transfer the vegetable mixture to the soup pot.
 
Scrape the kernels from the corn cobs and stir the corn into the soup.  Simmer gently until the corn is tender, about 10 minutes.  Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve hot, with the reserved bacon bits on top of each serving.