Corn chowder with chipotles

Ingredients for Serves 4

• 3 strips smoked bacon
• 1 x onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 x sweet red pepper, diced
• 3 cups corn kernels
• ½ to ¾ cup whipping (35 %) cream (125 to 175 ml)
• 1/2 chipotle pepper (in adobo sauce), minced, or to taste ** SEE BELOW
• milk, to taste
• coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (15 ml)

Medium

Directions

1. Cook bacon in a large saucepan over medium-high heat just until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towel. Set aside. Reserve 1 tbsp. of bacon in the saucepan and remove some of the bacon fat from pan and discard. Use the same saucepan to cook the chowder.

2. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, garlic and celery to the saucepan. Sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add stock and potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until potatoes are slightly tender. Add red pepper, corn, whipping cream, chipotle pepper and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Crumble reserved bacon and stir into soup. If chowder is too thick, adjust with ¼ cup of milk and just reheat until steaming. Season with salt and pepper and stir in cilantro. Serve

3. ** NOTE: At first, I couldn’t find the Chipotle Peppers in Adobo but did find Chipotle Purée in a jar made by Derlea Foods, the only place I saw it was IGA. I used 3 heaping teaspoons. It is quite hot and has a smoky flavour. Now I use one pepper in adobo and a teaspoon of the purée.

4. I also added 2 cups of grated Old Cheddar Cheese, which I think, added to the soup. THIS SOUP IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!

starters April 23, 2011 16:16

Author Kasey Cree