Even though I love buying cooking magazines their summer issues always leave me indifferent since they are filled with salads and barbeque. Don't get me wrong, I love veggies in spite of the lack of them on my blog. The thing is I like veggies plain. For example I will take green beans, steam them and eat the just like that with nothing else on them. This of course makes for very boring blogging hence why I don't post pictures of them. As for barbequed meat although I love chicken on the grill I am not a big fan of red meat. This is why when the weather starts getting colder and the leaves change color I get excited as it means that I can start cooking fall food. Lately the temperature has been hovering around 0 degrees Celsius (that is 32 Fahrenheit for all of you Americans) even though it is not even November so I thought it was a opportunity time to make Corn and Bacon Chowder.
It seems like I begin a lot of recipes with bacon. But what can I say, there few things that bacon will no improve. It is the meaty equivalent of MSG.
My bacon went into the pan until was lovely and crispy and the fat had all rendered. I took out most of the bacon fat but left a tablespoon or two in. All the rich food I have been eating lately has not helped matters in the wardrobe department which is causing me to attempt to cut back in fat and calories wherever I can.
Next I roughly chopped an onion.
This went into the pan to cook in the bacon fat. This is seriously one of the best smells ever. I now know why Southern housewives keep a jar of bacon grease by the stove.
When they were translucent I added in turmeric, salt, pepper and a few heaping tablespoons of flour.
Back to the chopping board I went to cut up some potatoes.
If we ever win the lottery and I get to be a housewife I solemnly promise I will lovingly prepare my chicken broth from scratch, but until that day comes I will continue to use Campbell's chicken broth. I'm not being paid by Campbells for this plug but I seriously recommend this stuff. It is the closest you can get to to homemade in the supermarket. It is way better than bouillon cubes or the liquid stock concentrate that you dissolve in water. It is a bit more expensive but well worth the price.
After dumping the potatoes in the pot I added just enough broth to cover everything. I cranked it up to high so it would start to boil and my potatoes went for a swim for 20 minutes or so until they were nice and tender but not falling apart.
The next additions were corn. Yes, frozen and from a bag and...
some cheddar cheese. I thought about buying fresh corn this summer and cutting the kernels off the cob and freezing them to use later. When I suggest this to The Husband, who is a big corn on the cob aficionado, he looked scandalised and said it would be sacrilege to do such a thing. Since I don't like to scandalise my spouse I continue using the stuff in the bag.
First the corn went in...
followed by the cheese. Frozen corn literally take a minute to thaw in boiling soup so by this point my chowder was almost done.
At the last moment I added the bacon bits back in along with a splash of milk.
I've made this recipe a few times before but I think this was my best try yet. I added a lot less stock than I usually do so the chowder was very thick and cheesy. I love the combination of the hearty potatoes with the freshness of the corn and the savoury bits of bacon. This is really fall food at its best.
