Corn and Potato Chowder
Here’s a quick soup recipe that was ‘loosely’ adapted from a cookbook by Jeff Smith, ‘The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American’. I say loosely because the original recipe was made with cream and crawfish and garnished with hard boiled eggs. Well, even though the Crawfish River is only a few miles from us here in Wisconsin, we aren’t particularly into crawfishing. We didn’t have any cream sitting in the fridge, and when the soup was done, we really didn’t desire to have any hard boiled eggs in it.
This simple soup is very good and takes less than a half hour to prepare. You can decide if you want cream or extra accoutrements to dress it up.
Corn Potato Chowder
4 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Medium Chopped Onion, about 1 cup
4 T. Unbleached Flour
8 Cups Veggie Broth, heated
3 Cups Cubed Potatoes, unpeeled
1 Bay Leaf
3 Cups Garden Corn, thawed if frozen, or cut and scraped from fresh ears of corn
Parsley or Cilantro for garnish
Salt & Pepper to taste
On medium heat sauté the onion in the olive oil until golden. Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for a couple of minutes. Mash in the flour well so there are no lumps. Add the hot broth and simmer for a few minutes until it thickens a bit. If you have any trouble with lumps use a stick or immersion blender to smooth it out or use a regular blender doing a few cups of liquid at a time. When you’re happy with the texture add the potatoes and bay leaf. Simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 10-15 minutes. Add the corn and cook until heated through. Remove the bay leaf and serve with garnishes of your choice. Enjoy!
