Be Corny and Chow Down!

As the days get colder, warm, comforting foods tend to dwell on our minds. One such food is soup, and one particularly comforting kind of soup is chowder.

Since my chronicler Hushicho had a bad experience with some canned corn chowder that had turned, upwards of twenty years previous, this was a special challenge: develop a recipe homemade that could be duplicated without that same risk! So naturally, as I often do, I rose to the occasion.

The Corniest Chowder Ever

Ingredients

2 C milk or soymilk (or any sort of milk; nutmilks will also work nicely)
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 baking potato, cubed
1 can kernel corn
1/4-1/2 large onion
carrot, sliced thin, to taste
1 bay leaf

all to taste:

garlic
basil
parsley
sea salt
black pepper

1) In a saucepan, heat the butter or margarine over medium-high heat until it has melted. Add the onion, carrot, and all spices except for salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Cook for 5 or so minutes, until the onions have reduced and are mostly transparent.

2) Add the milk and stir thoroughly. Bring just to a boil, then add the potato. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for at least 10 minutes.

3) Add the salt, pepper, and corn. Stir thoroughly and let cook for at least 5 more minutes, making sure the potato is tender and not hard.

4) Serve hot. This recipe will serve two with a side dish!


Tips and Such

- Cut the potato into small pieces so that it will be sure to cook within the 10 or so minutes. It's also nicer to fit onto the spoon if it's not a huge unwieldy chunk of tater!

- You can add a little hot pepper at the start, if you like a bit of extra heat! Or use Hungarian paprika, which is hotter than the paprika most groceries have. Experiment and play around! You might find something you especially enjoy.

- You can add a spoon of flour at the beginning, coating the onion and carrot, if you like your soup thicker. If you decide later that you would like it thicker, take some of the broth and ladle it into a bowl, then take a spoonful of cornstarch and whisk it together until it is completely blended. Add this back to your soup and stir it completely in. Your chowder should thicken quickly!

- You can add less corn, if you prefer less. Corn makes the dish sweeter and richer, and you will probably find every spoonful of chowder with some vegetable in it.

As you can see, it turned out wonderfully! This dish will make your day on these cold afternoons. When you don't have an Incubus to cuddle, choose the next best thing!

};) Dhiar <3