Corn and Potato Chowder

For a while in our CSA we were getting more corn and potatoes than we knew what to do with!  I know I shouldn't complain, but when you have 8 ears of corn and 15 potatoes and only 2 people, something needs to be done.  So turning to Gojee, I plugged in the vegetables I had on hand and stumbled upon this corn and potato chowder that looked relatively light and pretty simple to make.

Potato and Corn Chowder

I set out all of ingredients and hoped it would all turn out OK.  While it was not too difficult, there were quite a few ingredients involved.

The Ingredients

The Necessities...

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon sriracha
• 2 cups of potatoes (I used both red and yellow)
• 5 cups of broth (a combination of chicken and beef)
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Kernels from 5 ears of corn
• 1 cup Cheddar cheese (grated)
• pepper

To begin, I cooked the chopped onions and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat - until the onions were nice and tender and just beginning to brown (about 12 minutes).

Chopped Onions

While the onions were cooking away, I chopped up loads of potatoes.  I left the skin on because I like the added texture.  I definitely had more than 2 cups of potatoes, but since I had them on hand I just cut them all up.

Chopped Potatoes

Once the onions were browned, I added the the potatoes and gave everything a big stir to make sure it was all thoroughly mixed and allowed it to cook for about 3 minutes.  At this point you also add the cayenne pepper, but I used sriracha instead (we were cayenne-less after a jar of it shattered, dusting the entire kitchen in spicy pepper!)

Loads of potatoes

Next I added the broth, sour cream, and salt, and gave everything another big stir, allowing it to cook for about 20 minutes.

Cooking away

Five ears of corn is a whole lot to cut off and I really did not want to slice off my finger.  Instead, Nick taught me a great trick.  I simply flipped over a small bowl and placed it in a larger bowl, cut off a little piece of the bottom of the ear so that it was flat, placed it on top of the small bowl and sliced downward so that kernels just collected in the big bowl.

Ready for slicing

Kernels from 5 ears of corn

After the 20 minutes were up, I lightly mashed about half of the potatoes in the pot.  The mashed up bits made the whole broth thicker.  I then allowed the soup to cook for another 10 minutes - until the potatoes were nice and tender.  Finally, I stirred in the massive amount of cheese and corn.

Cheese and Corn - what's not to like?!

At that point, the soup really only needed about another 5 minutes to cook, plus some salt and pepper to taste.

Just about ready

I served this up with a nice big chunk of a hearty bread - perfect for sopping up the broth of the soup.

Dinner is ready

Not being a big chowder fan because of the creamy texture, I have to admit that I loved this "chowder." To me it was more of a thicker broth with loads of goodness to provide some added bite and texture.  I was also surprised at how much flavor the soup had because really there was not much added - shows how far fresh ingredients can go!  That and some sriracha ;)

Extreme Close-up

With all the corn we had on hand and continue to get, we've actually been cutting most of it up so we could freeze it and pull it out in the middle of winter and try to remember what summer is like!