Beating back the June gloom with a cup of chowder

11/5/23:  Apparently never hit Publish on this one...and it was an oddly busy summer...

I knew when I moved back to the Northwest that I was trading the dry, sunny Paso skies for plenty of liquid sunshine and grey. My coping tactic has been what most Seattleites do…when the sun comes out, you go outside. And if it’s not sunny, you still “get out there”.  But, man, this lack of Spring has been tough. We’ve finally turned the corner to warmer temps, but the highs are still abnormally low, and the rainfall abnormally high. Summer starts July 5th, right? Right?!?

As I try to break out of hibernation mode, I’ve been craving both comfort food and summer flavors. Mom & I had lunch at Duke’s on Lake Union recently, and their recipe of the day was a corn chowder. Just the ticket as early fresh corn hits the market. 

I didn’t follow their recipe. It had chicken, which seemed unnecessary. I looked at a few recipes, and proceeded to do my own thing. Big surprise.

Ingredients

2 fresh corn on the cob
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 Fresno Chile, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1+ tbsp Sherry
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup cream 
1 slice bacon

Preparation

  1. Slice off the fresh corn kernels and defrost the frozen corn.
  2. Scrape the juice from the corn cobs into the frozen corn & add a little cream..
  3. Cook the bacon in a Dutch oven and offload and drain.
  4. Brown the fresh corn in the bacon fat and offload.
  5. Add a little olive oil and sauté the peppers, garlic, and onions.
  6. Deglaze with a little sherry. 
  7. Add the chicken stock.
  8. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
  9. Purée the frozen corn mixture.
  10. Add corn purée to thicken. 
  11. Add the sautéed corn.

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