Recipe Corn Chowder

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I made this using a New York Times Cooking recipe as a basis, but assembled it with expiring food from my refrigerator. I had boiled the corn 3 days earlier; the potatoes were starting to form sprouts because they'd been on the shelf a bit too long. I would have used half-and-half, but that had turned, so I used skim milk instead.

All things considered, it ended up very tasty. For a corn chowder to be good, the corn needs to be good. Even 3 days later, this was a spectacular crop of corn that my in-laws brought for us.

The coolest thing about this recipe - all credit to the Times - is that you make your own "corn stock". Much better than using a stock someone else made.

Ingredients

4 ears of corn
1 tablespoon light butter
2 ounces green onions, white and green parts, diced
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon truffle salt, more or less to taste
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup skim milk

Directions

1. Add a tablespoon of sugar to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil corn for 8 minutes, then remove from water, retaining 4 cups of the water. When cool, cut kernels off and set aside, retaining the cobs of the corn.

2. Place corn cobs in the reserved 4 cups of water from the first step. Cook at a simmer for at least 10 minutes while doing the remaining steps.

3. Melt the butter in a separate pan. Add diced green onion and potato. Stir to coat, then add thyme leaves. Stir frequently for about 5 minutes, or until onions start to caramelize.

4. Pour "corn stock" from step 2 into the pan with the onion and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in truffle salt if desired. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes soften.

5. Stir in skim milk and corn kernels and increase heat to warm up. Season to taste and serve.

 

[Morning Glory]

Well I would have clicked 'like' but in all honesty I dislike sweetcorn. It may well be because I've never has the real deal but I just don't like the sweet taste. However, your Chowder certainly looks the business - and this caught my eye:

1/2 teaspoon truffle salt

So I'm assuming this is salt in which a truffle has been buried or something? Or do you buy it preprepared?

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

This is the salt I used. All truffle salts are composed of some sort of salt crystals and ground truffle bits. I think mine is a 5% mix, meaning that it's 5% truffle and 95% salt. I've also seen 10% salts, which would be a lot more potent (and expensive). I rarely use it, since I want to understand whether or not it makes sense (come to think of it, I should have consulted the Flavor Thesaurus, though I imagine this will be a combination in there, since it worked well).

 

[Francesca]

@The Late Night Gourmet

1) The Italian Craft Salt is quite a lovely touch.

2) Why do you put sugar in the boiling wáter ? Does this have a purpose other than to sweeten ?

This is quite a classic in North America, and Italy & Romania are big polenta cultures .. Spain is not .. The Iberians feed their husks of corn to livestock here ..

The Farmer´s Markets have organic corn as there is a large South American population in Iberia .. They use corn in their ceviches, soups and stews.

3) Sounds good .. Thank you for posting ..

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Why do you put sugar in the boiling wáter ? Does this have a purpose other than to sweeten ?

I read a while ago that salt would cause the kernels to get tougher, and that sugar is recommended instead in the water. The corn is delicious this way, but maybe I will experiment by boiling some corn in sugar and some in salt and see what happens.

 

[Francesca]

I read a while ago that salt would cause the kernels to get tougher, and that sugar is recommended instead in the water. The corn is delicious this way, but maybe I will experiment by boiling some corn in sugar and some in salt and see what happens.

@The Late Night Gourmet,

Interesting. I have never heard or read this before, about any vegetable ..

Perhaps, I would do some more research on this .. However, it could well be very true ..

Yes, the combination of both salt and sugar could perhaps be a balance there ..

There are uncountable organic or natural salts with a wide variety of colors and ingredients in these salts ..

Maybe a salt with honey might be very interesting .. I have seen these salts at the April yearly International Gastronomic Trade Fair in Madrid, held yearly since 1936 ..

I have also seen sugars with a wide selection of ingredients and colors too ..

Fascinating to find the right salt for your chowder !!!!!

Have a lovely evening ..

 

[jennyb]

This looks yummy @The Late Night Gourmet! My hubby loves sweetcorn. Not sure if I can obtain the truffle salt here though.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

This looks yummy @The Late Night Gourmet! My hubby loves sweetcorn. Not sure if I can obtain the truffle salt here though.

Hmmm...maybe dried mushrooms would work the same way? Truffles do taste a lot like very intense mushrooms.

By the way, @morning glory, not only is the corn and truffle combo not in The Flavo(u)r Thesaurus, but I can't find a single reference to corn in the entire book! Maybe she didn't like corn either? However, I have found many recipes that use this combination.

 

[Morning Glory]

Hmmm...maybe dried mushrooms would work the same way? Truffles do taste a lot like very intense mushrooms.

By the way, @morning glory, not only is the corn and truffle combo not in The Flavo(u)r Thesaurus, but I can't find a single reference to corn in the entire book! Maybe she didn't like corn either? However, I have found many recipes that use this combination.

I think corn is much more a regular ingredient in the USA. Obviously we do have it here but its usually either tinned or frozen (served as a an accompaniment to meat) or mixed into a stir-fry. If fresh then its usually served on the cob, often grilled as a starter or at a BBQ. At least - that is my experience. There doesn't seem to be a tradition of sweetcorn eating in the same way here. We also have fresh baby corns which again are used in stir-fries: