Potato Corn Chowder

 I follow along with this group that posts amazing recipes for #SundaySupper. Their theme this week was warming foods. Well, that is right up our alley. My house has the typical change in weather colds that pop up around this time of year. The wind is howling outside and today simply calls for soup. Or in this case, Potato Corn Chowder. My awesome cook extraordinaire Mother-in-Law gave me this recipe, credit to Mona Cole of Michigan. I just love it.

 

You need 6 slices of Bacon, to dice and to get your pan full of dripping goodness

2 stalks of celery diced

1 small onion diced

3 potatoes… Here I differentiate; I like to use fingerling potatoes and dice up about 10 of them, color or

         kind does not matter.

Water, but I use Chicken Broth,  enough to cover the potatoes, usually 2 to 3 cups

1 can of Cream Corn…If you can make that from scratch go for it, but I use the can

1 ½ cups of frozen corn, I freeze mine of the cob.

1 cup of Milk, I use 2% but whole works too

1 teaspoon of salt

1 clove of garlic, minced

¼ teaspoon of white pepper

1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional but good)

1 teaspoon of butter…the real stuff

In your soup pan, fry up the bacon. Once done to crispiness, set bacon on paper towels to dry. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of the grease in the bottom of the pan to add cook your veggies in. Add to the bacon drippings the celery, onion and garlic. Saute until for about 10 minutes. Then add in the potatoes and sprinkle with the salt and peppers. To this add enough water to cover the potatoes. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. At this point, add in the corn and creamed corn. Top with the milk and simmer, take care not to boil, for another 10 minutes until the corn is warmed through. Just prior to serving, I add in a teaspoon of real honest to goodness butter. The butter just finishes off the chowder but can be omitted if someone wanted to.

To serve, pour into bowls and top with the bacon from earlier. I also like to add in a nice pinch of extra sharp cheddar cheese.  My husband likes to top his with those crispy fried onion rings that you can buy at the grocery store.  Salt and Pepper with black pepper to taste. This Chowder is made with milk and the creamed corn to give it a healthier cream/chowder texture and flavor with less fat. You can absolutely substitute the milk for cream to make it richer.

Enjoy

: )