Recipe: Corn Chowder

No, this is not a repeat! How dare you! That other post was about corn soup. I like corn. Want to make something of it?

Image courtesy of Bon Appetit…but I swear,

my chowder looks very much like this.

It's a dreary day here in AvoidingRevisionsLandia, so I thought I'd share another unseasonable recipe, but a fine one for a rainy gray day like this. It's a bit labor intensive, but worth it if you dig corn as much as I do. You'll need:

½ stick butter
1 medium onion
6 cloves garlic
2 red bell peppers
3 spicy sausages links (I like Trader Joe's Jalapeño chicken sausage)
½ gallon whole milk
7–8 cups (4 bags) frozen corn, thawed
much salt and pepper
optional: 2 large potatoes, cornstarch, red pepper flakes

1. Get a big old stew pot—this recipe makes a buttload of chowder. Turn heat to medium and melt butter. Finely chop onion and garlic, and less-finely chop peppers and sausages, and add them to the melted butter. Let all that simmer, stirring occasonally, while you do the next step.

2. I use a blender for this because I don't own a food processor (which may work better). Combine a cup or two of corn and a cup of milk in the blender (note to self: put the lid on, genius) and blend until you've got a nice paste. If the corn is still frozen, this can be annoying and laborious—you've been warned. Dump the paste into the pot (which now contains pure melted buttery liquid heart attack) and repeat this step until all of the milk and all but three cups of the corn are blended. Dump the last three cups of unblended corn into the pot and stir it all together.

3. Put the pot back on the burner on medium heat. If you like potatoes in your chowder, chop them (don't be a wuss, leave the skins on) into small chunks and dump them in the pot. They will probably add a good half hour to your cooking time.

4. Simmer and stir, add plenty of salt and pepper (and red pepper flakes, if you like) to taste. Without potatoes, this chowder will probably need to simmer on medium heat (stirring every couple minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot) for a half hour, until it's nice and hot. Closer to an hour with the potatoes—simmer until they're soft.

5. If you like your chowder extra thick, once it's hot and the optional potatoes are soft, sprinkle in a tablespoon of cornstarch, stir, and repeat every couple minutes until the viscosity's to your liking.

6. Om nom nom.

7. Freeze the leftovers—they reheat like a dream.