Corn chowder recipes?

[readingredhead]

Almost a year ago, I moved away from Berkeley, CA where one of my favorite comfort foods year-round was corn chowder from a restaurant called Smart Alec's (their motto: healthy food fast!). I've tried to reproduce it once or twice but it never comes out thick enough and the flavor is always too bland. I've lost the recipes I tried last summer and

Comments

[lunanoir]

My favorite corn chowder recipe:

Corn Chowder

1 tablespoon vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil (or, you can use 2-3 slices of bacon here, cook until crispy in the pan, remove and reserve about 1T of the bacon fat in the pan.)

2 tablespoons butter

2 all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

1 pinch of dried thyme. Can also add rosemary or sage, both are nice in here, or your favorite herb blend.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or broth

1 quart whole milk

3 cups corn kernels, scraped fresh from the cob or frozen kernels

Toppings:
Oyster crackers
Hot cayenne pepper sauce
Sliced scallions

If using fresh corn: shuck the corn, cut off the kernels, and add the reserved liquid and the scraped cobs to the milk and simmer over low heat while you work on the rest of the soup. Remove the cobs before adding the milk to the soup.

Heat a deep pot over moderate heat. Add oil and butter (or bacon). As you chop your veggies, add them to the pot: potatoes, celery, onion, and red bell pepper. Add bay leaf to the pot. Season vegetables with salt and pepper and herbs.

Saute veggies 5 minutes, then sprinkle in flour.

Cook flour 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in broth and bring to a simmer, then stir in warmed milk. Bring soup up to a bubble. Add corn and simmer soup 5 minutes(do not boil) and adjust seasonings as needed.