Best Ever Corn Chowder

Someone's lovely mumfairy contributed today's recipe for corn chowder. The best ever corn chowder, if you believe the hype. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty good, especially for Dave, who was rather cold when he got home. He got lost in Botley shopping for thesis aids (a skype microphone to enable me to interview Steve Maharey, very belatedly, and a thermos so that I can still drink coffee when the Rhodes House common room is closed tomorrow but I'm still dedicatedly working away in the bunker. I digress). The point is, while it may be spring, you still need gloves when cycling at dusk. And corn chowder is a good restorative.

This is probably the first recipe that actually fits the criteria of being quick and easy and made from readily available ingredients. It was so easy, in fact, that we were able to watch a a guilty episode of Gossip Girl (ITV Player! Why didn't I know about this sooner?) during the cooking process.

Best Ever Corn Chowder

1. saute 2 large onions or a large leek finely sliced and 2 cloves garlic in butter/olive oil until caramelised

2. add 2 large or 4 small peeled cubed potato/kumara, stir for 5 minutes until starting to clarify

3. add 2 tablespoons stock pwd with 2 cups water or 2 cups concentrated stock

4. cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

5. add 2 reg cans creamed corn and 1 litre milk and raise heat gradually. Don't boil.

6. taste, and add pepper, salt, curry pwd to your preferred taste.

If you are being posh serve it inside a hollowed out baked crusty loaf, otherwise just with fresh crusty bread,and parsley sprinkled on top.

If you eat meat, you can add bacon or chicken at the beginning.


We used a couple of leeks and the potatoes left over from Friday's gnocchi efforts. Next time I think I'll add some salt and other flavour aids at the saute-ing stage, as it needed loads of salt, pepper and a few pinches of pepperoncino (the chilli powder we got in Italy because we thought it was smoked paprika, whoops) later on.

The chowder was a bit more liquidy than I would have liked, so next time I'll either add less milk (a litre does seem like a lot) or bulk it up with chicken and maybe some carrots. This would also be good if you have an anti-soup bias (it's not a proper meal!) like me. Still, I'm bound to say that with some grilled ciabatta this was a very satisfying dinner.

Key tip: make sure you leave yourself enough milk for a cup of tea, as this was very good washed down with a strong Earl Grey and a piece of marshmallow slice. And another episode of Gossip Girl. I know, I know.