On one of the thirty-seven cooking shows I watch each day, I observed someone brewing up a pot of corn soup. They began with two ears of sweet corn removing the kernels from the cobs and pureed half in a blender while leaving the rest whole. I don’t recall any more of the recipe but when I think corn I often think Mexican and what I did remember was enough to build upon.
Last week I picked up a can of creamed corn and a can of whole corn and following a quick inventory of the fridge, freezer and larder came up with Chapman’s North of the Border Gringo OH-Mex Corn Chowder. Here’s the deal:
- Puree one can of creamed corn in a blender or food processor. Add a little milk, half ‘n half, or cream to aid the process. When finished pour into a 4 or 5 quart sauce pan or stock pot. (Note: Couple of years ago I bought a submersible wand blender and it is extremely handy for making soups like this. Also easier to clean than a bigger machine. )
- Add one can of whole corn along with enough milk to achieve the consistency you like. You may have to add some additional liquid later.
- Add a can of sliced new potatoes cut to a smaller pieces.
- Add to the mixture some finely chopped onion, a little fresh or canned chopped tomato, and some finely chopped peppers. I had some late season fresh tomatoes and red sweet peppers so I used those.
- For seasoning I flavored to taste with sea salt, fresh black pepper, chili powder, ground cumin, dried cilantro, and some homemade pineapple-Habanero sauce a friend had given me.
- Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and let slowly cook for an hour. Stir frequently.
- If you want a meat version add some Mexican chorizo or a little smoked sausage. I happened to have some shredded Caribbean BBQ pork and added a little of that to each bowl.
To finish off each serving I added a dollop of sour cream, chopped scallions and some fried homemade corn tortilla strips. A few days earlier I had constructed a crude tortilla press from some scrap boards and had practiced making corn tortillas from masa harina. So, it all came together at just the right time.
Your recipe sounds good, but for mathematically-minded people it’d help a lot if you said how much milk and stuff to add, instead of telling us to add until it’s a consistency we like or to taste, since we have no way of knowing that until we’ve eaten some, so we’d have to cook the recipe two or three times to get it to where we liked it, and if the first batch wasn’t very good then we might not ever get that far along. Besides, eating it at a consisency you like, using your measurements, would be a better starting place for people such as me. Just a thought. I mean, you can continue to show off your admirable cooking prowess with your weekly recipes, but if you really want to see people out here cooking ’em and commenting on ’em, it’d help to have a starting place. The good cooks out here amongst us could alter the recipes to suit ’em on the fly even with such a starting point.
Sorry, but I don’t cook with measuring devices. If you like it wet, add more milk, if you like it saltier, add a pinch. This may be why I was a failure at math! 🙂