Today's recipe-Corn chowder

It occurred to me that I have a culinary blog but haven't posted a recipe for y'all yet.

Corn chowder is a popular soup here in the USA and when I lived in India I had to take many non-vegetarian dishes and convert them into vegetarian dishes.  Sometimes it worked well and other times it didn't.  I can say that this corn chowder converts to vegetarian quite nicely.  Funny thing was the restaurant where I served this was in Bombay, India.  The restaurant was modeled after an American style steakhouse in a country that is 75% vegetarian. If that doesn't constitute funny I don't know what does.

When you live in other countries there is naturally going to be a learning curve.  Well, there was one with this recipe. I learned that ingredients can be different in different countries.  I opened a new hotel when I was in Bombay.  I arrived in August of '03 and we didn't open until March of '04.  Once the hotel was finished and we were allowed to start using the kitchens this was the first recipe I cooked and tested.  I cut the kernels off the ears of corn and proceeded to boil them.  Some of my cooks stopped me, "chef, the corn won't cook."  "Yeah, right, do you think I just started cooking yesterday?" I replied in disbelief that they would try to pull one over on their new boss.  After 30 minutes I checked the corn and it was still hard.  After another 30 minutes I checked and it still wasn't cooked.  "What the F&$@K?" I thought.  My cooks saw me and said "See we told you."  Point taken, lesson learned.  What I learned I had to do was cook the hell out of that crappy corn then puree and strain it which, thankfully, worked.  

Corn here in the U.S. is more tender.  It actually cooks........wow, that is novel idea; food that cooks!  Hmmm, what is next?  A tire that rolls?

Anyways, enjoy the recipe.  For you non-vegematerians I suggest adding some jumbo lump crab at the end but don't cook it in the soup or it won't be jumbo lump anymore.  

Duration: 2 hours

Yield: 4- 6 ppl

Corn chowder

U.O.M:

Liter

PURCHASE LIST

INGREDIENTS

For the soup

250 gr. Corn kernels that have been boiled and strained

25 gr. White onion, medium dice

15 gr.. Garlic, minced

75 ml. Double cream

150 gr. Potato, peeled, diced-2”X2”, boiled separately in salted water and drained

pinch Thyme, picked

300ml. Corn puree-recipe below

85ml. White wine

To sauté Butter

To taste Salt

To taste Fresh cracked black pepper

For the corn purée

300 gr. Corn, frozen

To cover Water

To taste Salt

Basic Preparation:

For the corn purée:

Cook the corn in lightly boiling, salted water until tender

Drain the kernels and purée in a blender, not food processor. While puréeing, add just enough water to make it the consistency of baby food. Remember you can always add more water but you can’t take out. Strain through a fine strainer if you want a finer purée or don't strain if you want a chunkier type purée.

To finish:

Sauté the garlic, onion, thyme and cooked corn kernels over medium heat in a little butter for about 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Season with salt and pepper. As the vegetables absorb the butter during the cooking process, add a little olive or salad oil as needed.

Stir frequently and make sure the vegetables DO NOT TAKE COLOR. If they do, reduce the heat and add a small amount of water if necessary.

Add the wine and cook until it is reduced but not dry

Add the corn puree, drained potatoes and cream and simmer for @ 10 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning where necessary.

Serve.