Recipe: Corn, bacon and potato chowder (Curtis Stone)

It was an impromptu decision to make this soup. I was at the wet market yesterday morning and saw some really nice sweetcorn. I remember seeing a recipe by Curtis Stone on Coles website for corn, bacon and potato chowder and another blogger friend, Lian also made it and it looked good.

Corn, bacon and potato chowder

Chowder is a term for thickened soup, in this case, the soup is thickened by the roux (flour and butter) and further thickened by the starch from the potatoes. After checking the recipe when I got home, I found that I had all the ingredients except for the celery so I just omitted that and in its place, I doubled the amount of potato and onions that I used. If you cannot get fresh corn cobs, then frozen corn would also work well.

This is an easy soup to make, and tastes healthy too (if you ignore the streaky bacon :P) Even without any cream, this soup tastes pretty rich and creamy. I did not have to season it much with salt since it gets its saltiness from the bacon, and also some heat from the cayenne pepper. The sweetcorn was really nice, sweet plus it adds a nice crunch to the soup. This is a soup that the whole family can enjoy. 

Baby C can't wait to dig in

Looks like she is pleased with mummy's replication of Mr. Stone's chowder recipe

Corn, bacon and potato chowder
Recipe adapted from Curtis Stone
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
3 rashers streaky bacon, cut into 1cm pieces
1/2 tsp unsalted butter
1 medium brown onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 sprigs thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
A pinch of ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp plain flour
1/2 cup Water
1 large potato, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes
1 1/2 cups milk
300g sweetcorn kernels (from 1 corn cob)
1/2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a large non-stick heavy-based saucepan, cook the bacon over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add the butter and cook for 1-2 minutes until melted and just golden.

2. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 2-3 minutes until the onion has softened.

3. Add the thyme and cayenne pepper and give it a stir.

4. Add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Then, stir in the water and potato. Cook for 8 minutes, or until the potato is tender.

5. Add the milk and corn to the pan and increase the heat to medium high. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once the soup has reached a rapid simmer, cook for 3 minutes or until the soup has thickened. Discard the thyme sprigs and season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Ladle the soup into four bowls, garnish with parsley and serve.


Note: I omitted the celery sticks, and replaced with double the amount of onion and potatoes from original recipe.

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