TracyFood

Recipe: Herbed Potato-Corn Chowder 13 February 2007 9:02 am

Posted by Tracy in : Morning Glory, cooking, eating, recipes, soup, sundance, vegan, vegetarian , trackback

I got to make soup for Morning Glory for the first time last Saturday, and I’ve been oddly nervous about it ever since. Is it any good? Did I make too much? Will it sell? Is this weather too unseasonably beautiful for something rich and creamy? Stuff like that. To reassure myself that I’ve still got what it takes in the vegan soup department, last night I made a home version of the potato-corn chowder I threw together on Saturday based on my vague recollections of a similar soup I made for Sundance once upon a time (only this time, I was able to consult my notes and signage):

I’m happy to say my home version turned out great! Soon I will go to work and find out how the Morning Glory version was received! Eeeee!

What You Need (Ingredients and Equipment)

2 pounds of potatoes, scrubbed (I don’t believe in peeling spuds unless the skins have gone seriously green)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2.5 cups frozen corn (10 oz bag)
2 bay leaves
salt
2 TB canola oil
1 1/2 cup onions (2 small), diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried dill (I actually ran out while testing this recipe!)
salt and pepper
two pots and a blender

What You Do

Before you do any of your vegetable prep beyond scrubbing the potatoes, coarsely chop (into halves or quarter) half of the spuds (about a pound) and put them in the smaller of your cooking pots, along with two cloves of garlic, a cup of corn, the bay leaves, and maybe a teaspoon of salt. Add enough water so that they’re barely covered, and bring the whole mixture to a boil on the stove. Turn down the heat and let everything simmer until the potatoes are tender, maybe 10-15 minutes. When the potatoes are done, just turn off the heat; you’ll get back to this pot later.
Meanwhile, prepare the rest of your veggies: dice the remaining potatoes along with the carrots and celery, and mince or press the remaining clove of garlic. Warm the canola oil in the larger pot over medium-high heat.
Sauté the onions, carrots, and celery in the hot canola oil along with the dill, thyme, and a pinch of salt, stirring occasionally. After maybe 5 minutes, when the onions are translucent and the other vegetables are beginning to soften, add the minced or pressed garlic and cook another minute, until everything is fragrant.
Next, add the remaining uncooked diced potatoes and enough water to barely cover everything. Put the lid on the pot, bring it to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and let everything cook 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender (sound familiar?)
By now your first pot of potatoes and garlic and corn should be done. Remove the bay leaves and blend the cooked mixture until it’s smooth and creamy. It will smell like delicious garlicky mashed potatoes, and nonvegans may be tempted to add add butter, milk, or even cream at this point but I can’t be held responsible for the results.
When the potato-vegetable mixture is cooked to your satisfaction, stir in the creamy potato-corn blend, season to taste with salt and pepper, and enjoy.

Makes 8-10 cups of delicious creamy soup even if you don’t add dairy products or substitutes, I promise. Takes less than an hour even while taking notes for food blog purposes or doing professional kitchen closing chores (which is to say, it can stand a few interruptions, no problem).

Other details: Depending on what kind of potatoes you used (cough, the waxy red-skinned kind better suited to home fries, cough) your potato-corn blend may turn out sort of beige-looking, in which case you can cheat like I did on Saturday and add a pinch of turmeric for color. At Sundance beige and gray were sort of like the kiss of death for soups, especially ones that weren’t immediately and obviously delicious-smelling, so we all learned to cheat a little, but I hope you won’t have to resort to this cheap trick. I am happy to report that this soup is delicious even without fresh herbs, but if you have fresh dill or thyme available, they would be fabulous here, oh yes (one tablespoon of fresh herb for every teaspoon of dried is a good rule of thumb). The original Sundance version of this soup used both fresh dill and thyme, as well as fresh parsley and a blend of dried marjoram and tarragon that was the result of an unfortunate spice rack refilling mishap on my part, one I spent a lot of recipes trying to use up. My first potato-corn chowder also depended on an embarrassing amount of vegan mock chicken broth powder, which I am proud to say was completely unneeded in this new and improved version. Yay!

Finally, to paraphrase my favorite cartoon tiger, I just like saying “chowder.” Chowder, chowder, chowder. It’s as fun to say as it is to eat!