Summer Corn Chowder

If you like fresh corn, you will LOVE this soup. "Chowder" soup seemed intimidating to me in the beginning.. I was thinking several ingredients, lots of steps, babysitting and stirring the soup constantly. NOT AT ALL. This soup screams summer with every mouthful. I mean who thinks of soup in the summer? But I'm telling ya, this soup with a piece of grilled bread (or leftover pizza dough in my case ;)  ) is amazing and hearty and surprisingly light for a chowder. So give this a try if you have tons of corn from your farmers market, if you are lucky enough to have a garden that is producing these sweet, golden kernels.

Ingredients:

-  2 ears of fresh corn or 1 package frozen corn.
-  2 Tbsp butter
-  1/2 onion chopped
-  2 Tbsp All purpose flour
-  1/2 tsp garlic minced or paste
-  4 cups water or vegetable broth or a combination
-  4 small yukon gold potatoes cut in small pieces
-  1/2 tsp dried thyme or oregano
-  salt and pepper
-  2 Tbsp half and half
-  2 scallions finely chopped
-  grated cheddar for garnish
-  fresh parsley chopped

Method:

1.  Melt the butter in a large soup pot, and add the flour. Whisk until the flour is cooked about 2 minutes.

2.  Add the onions, corn, potatoes and garlic and sautee on medium heat for 10 minutes until onion is sweating. Add couple of teaspoons of olive oil if the mixture seems too dry.

3. Add all the liquid (stock+water) along with salt, pepper and dried herbs and let it simmer for 20 minutes. The potatoes and corn should be cooked through.

4.  Blend about half the mixture till creamy and stir it in with the other half back in the pot. Add scallions and fresh parsley. More black pepper if desired.

5.  Lastly add the half and half for that extra creaminess. Garnish with chopped parsley and a bit of grated cheddar.

Roasted Tomato Chipotle Soup and Jalapeno Corn Muffins

This is serious comfort food. I've made many tomato soups but nothing with a mexican twist.  I sort of came up with the idea of adding chipotle peppers myself but Google revealed that there are others out there who've made this before and the result was unanimous... sweet/tart with a spicy kick at the end.   A lot of the recipes called for canned tomatoes but I had 3 pounds or so or fresh tomatoes in my fridge so my plan was to roast them with some garlic and then puree it with the chipotle pepper.

The jalapeno corn muffin accompanies the soup nicely. I used *gasp* Emerill Lagasse's recipe because since it was my first time ever making a corn muffin, I wanted to make it from scratch and not from a box.    I used fresh corn but I'm sure frozen kernels work just as well.  I went a little low on salt but other than that YUMM YUMM!! I've officially ventured into the land of Southern cooking with these  muffins.

You can't get this kind of flavour from a Campbells can.

Roasted Tomato Chipotle Soup


Ingredients:

-  10 tomatoes halved
-  2 cloves of garlic
-  1/2 cup vegetable stock
-  1/2 medium onion roughly chopped
-  salt&pepper
-  1 dried chipotle pepper
-  1/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions:

1.  Roast the tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic in a 400F oven for 40 minutes or until they are started to get caramelized. One sheet tray needs to be completely full.  Check the  oven after 30 minutes.

2.  In a little bit of boiling water, hydrate the chipotle pepper for about 5 minutes so it comes to life. You can remove the seeds if you wish but I kept them.

3.  In a large soup pot, sweat the onions till translucent along with the chipotle pepper.

4.  When the tomatoes and garlic are done roasting, add them to the soup pot and let it mingle with the onions and pepper. Add the vegetable stock and some water to thin it out to desired consistency.

5.  Puree the mixture in batches. DO IT IN BATCHES. I used a blender on the Liquefy setting but I'm sure a food processor or a Vitamix.. would work just fine.

6.  Return the puree (now called soup) to the soup pot and add the evaporated milk. Turn off the heat. The original recipe called for heavy cream but my waistline does not require that.  On second thought I think greek yogurt would be a nice alternative too.

7.  Serve nice and warm. I topped with a bit of tangy guacamole. It goes really well with the Corn muffins.

Jalapeno Corn Muffins

I followed Emerill Lagasse's recipe to a near T, something I never do when it comes to cooking ... but I was making this for guests and I didn't have a back up plan.  But I will say the recipe is made for 14 muffins. That had me slightly annoyed.. I mean I have a 12 muffin pan and I batter for 14.  So I had to ditch the last little bit of batter. So if you want exactly enough batter for your 12 muffin pan, use a little less of everything. :-P Yep, that's my well-thought-out advice.


Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels (frozen would be ok too)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch cayenne pepper or dried chilli powder
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon minced seeded green jalapenos
• 1 tablespoon minced seeded red jalapenos  (I skipped this)
• 1 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1.  Melt butter in a small pan. Sautee the corn and onions till the onions just start to turn a little brown. Set aside to cool.

2.  Preheat oven to 375F and grease 14 muffin tin cups. 

3.  In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and cheese. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, jalapenos, and honey. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Stir in the cooled onions and corn. Don't overstir or you will end up with muffin rocks. 

4.  Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. I used an icecream scoop.  They don't rise that much so I would go ahead and fill them almost all the way up. 

5.  Bake for 13-15 minutes till golden brown and the fork or toothpick comes out clean.

6.  Cool them on a rack and serve while still warm.