Ina Garten's Hearty Cheddar Corn Chowder & Quick Corn Bread

I was so relieved to see that Jill, from My Next Life did not choose another cake recipe for this week's recipe choice for the Barefoot Bloggers!  I'm a Soupaholic, but only when the California temperatures dip low enough. As it turned out, I made this on a Sunday when the weather made it's first appearance as overcast skies and possible rain showers.  I own The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, where this recipe can be found.

When I glanced at the photo my immediate thought was that the soup in the photo was too thin to be a chowder.  I removed some frozen homemade chicken stock-- which I never salt, by the way. I prefer to season my soups, not the stock! I defrosted 2 quarts in the microwave.

Soups, to me, are the easiest recipes to make. Honestly, I have not purchased a can of ready-made soup in several years!  I believe that the secret to good soup is to brown the vegetables, season it with herbs, add the vegetables and either homemade stock or commercial stock.  The only ingredient I had to buy for this recipe was fresh corn.  I decided that I really didn't need to measure for this recipe, but I decided to cut back on the quantities of ingredients by about half.

Here's a little trick that I use to cut fresh corn-- I grab one of my small nest bowls, flip it upside down inside a larger bowl and cut the kernels with a sharp knife. The kernels don't fly all over the place and the corn is ready to be blanched in boiling water.  (Some people use a bundt pan in a similar way). I used six ears of corn for this recipe.

I dipped a strainer into the pot and blanch these for about three minutes and set the corn aside to drain.

Now, for the bacon. I have started storing my bacon in the freezer. Using a sturdy and sharp knife, I cut the bacon into thin slices/julienne style-- or "lardons" as the French call it.

My lardons came to a little over four ounces. Frozen bacon not only slices easily, but it cooks up great, by the way.

In a Dutch Oven, I used a little bit of olive oil and browned the bacon until crispy. Now, it's time to use the bacon fat to cook the vegetables.

I did add a small pat of unsalted butter to the fat and cooked two chopped onions-- and I decided to add one chopped red pepper for color. I sauteed them with the tumeric. If you don't use tumeric, try it sometime! I don't think it adds flavor, but it gives food a pretty yellow color. I add a bit of tumeric to my white rice, sometimes, and it looks so pretty. All those brown bits in the pan-- flavor!  I added the chicken stock and I added chopped Yukon Gold potatoes, because they are always in my pantry. Once the veggies were cooked (about 15 minutes) I added the corn and sharp cheddar (I didn't use white cheddar because I had lots of yellow cheddar in my fridge). I added about 1/4 cup of half & half.

I gave the soup a taste and I thought it was bland! It was missing something. So, I added a little bit of dried thyme.  I tasted it... better, but still boring. I decided to add a little cayenne, but then I spotted my "flavor bomb". I love this stuff!

Old Bay Seasoning! Please tell me you use this wonderful blend of spices! On the can it says:
CELERY SALT (SALT, CELERY SEED), SPICES (INCLUDING MUSTARD, RED PEPPER, BLACK PEPPER, BAY [LAUREL] LEAVES, CLOVES, ALLSPICE [PIMENTO], GINGER, MACE, CARDAMOM, CINNAMON) AND PAPRIKA.. I use Old Bay Seasoning in my egg salad, too.

I added about 1 teaspoon, stirred it and this was it!  This was my secret ingredient to Ina's recipe, and I loved it.

Still, I though the soup was to thin for a chowder, so I grabbed my other secret ingredient. To thicken soup, I prefer potato starch flour over regular flour.  The best way to use this is to temper it-- in a bowl I started with 2 Tablespoons and added some hot soup and whisked it together.

I realized that I really wanted a bread with this soup-- at the last minute. I quickly made a batch of my skillet corn bread and some honey butter to go with it. Hey, I'm a Yankee, so I like sweet cornbread! I also made a side salad to complete the meal.

Now, for a garnish of bacon...

Ah, a hearty and thick chowder, with...

Hot cornbread and honeybutter...

Heaven! The sweet corn is still a reminder that summer wasn't that long ago... and I'll tell you that this soup tasted even better than the day before.  I think that the Old Bay Seasoning took the flavor of this soup up another notch. Do you hear me, Ina?

Thanks, Jill, for picking a great recipe. I will definitely make this soup again. I bet this soup would freeze beautifully. Ours is all gone, though. Every single bite was so good.

 
If you are a fan of Ina Garten, come check out the Barefoot Bloggers. We post recipes twice a month, so we have one more recipe to go for October.

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