food international: Corn & Cheese Chowder

Last week, I whipped up three yummy soups, all perfect for Halloween night and all guaranteed to:

1. Give your trick-or-treaters a nice warm head start before they take off on their quest to fill their bags to the brim with candy
2. Possibly cut down on the number of pieces of candy your child will consume while he is trick-or-treating
3. I can’t think of a third thing.

Today’s recipe is a scrumptious, thick, delicious corn chowder made extra luscious with cheese. I served it in a bread bowl because corn chowder in a bread bowl is one of life’s great extravagances.

(In a moment of soupy serendipity, at the exact time I was cooking my Halloween soups last week [Broccoli Cheese among the three varieties] A Cozy Kitchen posted this beautiful broccoli-cheese bread bowl on the Tasty Kitchen Blog. I’ll post my broccoli-cheese version later this week…but that one looks utterly divine.)

And now. For zee chowder, baby.

 

The Cast of Characters: Butter, chopped onion, bacon pieces (either uncooked or cooked), fresh corn kernels, diced bell pepper (I used yellow, orange, and red; pretty!), sliced green onions, grated Monterey jack, grated pepper jack (or you can do any cheese combo!), flour, and…

NOT PICTURED because I’m rusty with Cast of Characters photos and because I’m an airhead: salt, pepper, chicken broth and half-and-half.

 

In a good-sized pot, saute the chopped onions in butter.

 

Add the bacon and saute it for a couple of minute, or until the onions and bacon become best friends forever.

Next, throw in the diced bell peppers…

 

And saute them around for a couple of minutes.

Next goes the corn.

Cook it for a couple of minutes.

 

And now. This is important. Use your freakiest, most disturbing-looking alien hand you have…well, on hand. And with that hand, sprinkle in some flour.

(If you do not have a freaky, disturbing-looking alien hand, you can have mine.)

(No, really. You can.)

Stir to incorporate the flour, then pour in the broth.

 

Stir this around and let it thicken for a couple of minutes…

Then pour in the half-and-half. You can also use milk. You can also use half milk and half half-and-half.

Either way, we’re getting ready to add enough cheese to render this choice irrelevant.

Now it’s just a matter of letting it simmer and thicken for 10-15 minutes or so.

Yum!

Now just dump in a bunch of green onions…

And a bunch of cheese.

Stir it around, check the seasonings, and add some black pepper.

Now you can just stick on the lid and turn off the stove for a little while; it’ll stay warm for awhile.

Behold zee boule.

Lop off the top, then pick out the innards, leaving a small margin of bread in tact.

Gnaw on these if you’re hungry, or stick ’em in a baggie and save ’em…or feed ’em to the ducks.

Then grab a ladle…

And fill up the hollowed-out boule with the creamy, wonderful, slightly crunchy goodness.

This is a rather large boule, I will say that. But some stores sell them smaller than this (or, if not, I’ll show you a trick with my next soup post.)

 

To die for. If you have corn-loving trick-or-treaters in your house, they’ll love this.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Corn & Cheese Chowder

Prep Time:

15 Minutes

Difficulty:

Easy

Cook Time:

20 Minutes

Servings:

12 Servings

Ingredients

• 4 Tablespoons 1/2 Stick Butter
• 1 whole Onion, Chopped
• 3 slices Bacon, Cut Into Pieces
• 3 whole Bell Peppers, Finely Diced (red, Yellow, Orange)
• 5 ears Corn, Kernels Sliced Off
• 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
• 3 cups Chicken Stock Or Broth
• 2 cups Half-and-half
• 1 cup (heaping) Grated Monterey Jack
• 1 cup (heaping) Pepper Jack
• 1/3 cup Sliced Green Onions
• Bread Bowls

Instructions

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onions for a couple of minutes. Add bacon and cook for another minute or so, then add diced bell peppers and cook for a couple of minutes. Finally, add corn and cook for a minute.

Sprinkle flour evenly over the top and stir to combine. Pour in broth and stir well. Allow this to thicken for 3 or 4 minutes, then reduce heat to low. Stir in half-and-half, then cover and allow to simmer/thicken for 15 minutes or so.

Stir in cheeses and green onions. When cheese is melted and the soup is hot, check seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Ladle into hollowed out boules and serve immediately.