Ina Garten's Hearty Cheddar Corn Chowder & Quick Corn Bread

I was so relieved to see that Jill, from My Next Life did not choose another cake recipe for this week's recipe choice for the Barefoot Bloggers!  I'm a Soupaholic, but only when the California temperatures dip low enough. As it turned out, I made this on a Sunday when the weather made it's first appearance as overcast skies and possible rain showers.  I own The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, where this recipe can be found.

When I glanced at the photo my immediate thought was that the soup in the photo was too thin to be a chowder.  I removed some frozen homemade chicken stock-- which I never salt, by the way. I prefer to season my soups, not the stock! I defrosted 2 quarts in the microwave.

Soups, to me, are the easiest recipes to make. Honestly, I have not purchased a can of ready-made soup in several years!  I believe that the secret to good soup is to brown the vegetables, season it with herbs, add the vegetables and either homemade stock or commercial stock.  The only ingredient I had to buy for this recipe was fresh corn.  I decided that I really didn't need to measure for this recipe, but I decided to cut back on the quantities of ingredients by about half.

Here's a little trick that I use to cut fresh corn-- I grab one of my small nest bowls, flip it upside down inside a larger bowl and cut the kernels with a sharp knife. The kernels don't fly all over the place and the corn is ready to be blanched in boiling water.  (Some people use a bundt pan in a similar way). I used six ears of corn for this recipe.

I dipped a strainer into the pot and blanch these for about three minutes and set the corn aside to drain.

Now, for the bacon. I have started storing my bacon in the freezer. Using a sturdy and sharp knife, I cut the bacon into thin slices/julienne style-- or "lardons" as the French call it.

My lardons came to a little over four ounces. Frozen bacon not only slices easily, but it cooks up great, by the way.

In a Dutch Oven, I used a little bit of olive oil and browned the bacon until crispy. Now, it's time to use the bacon fat to cook the vegetables.

I did add a small pat of unsalted butter to the fat and cooked two chopped onions-- and I decided to add one chopped red pepper for color. I sauteed them with the tumeric. If you don't use tumeric, try it sometime! I don't think it adds flavor, but it gives food a pretty yellow color. I add a bit of tumeric to my white rice, sometimes, and it looks so pretty. All those brown bits in the pan-- flavor!  I added the chicken stock and I added chopped Yukon Gold potatoes, because they are always in my pantry. Once the veggies were cooked (about 15 minutes) I added the corn and sharp cheddar (I didn't use white cheddar because I had lots of yellow cheddar in my fridge). I added about 1/4 cup of half & half.

I gave the soup a taste and I thought it was bland! It was missing something. So, I added a little bit of dried thyme.  I tasted it... better, but still boring. I decided to add a little cayenne, but then I spotted my "flavor bomb". I love this stuff!

Old Bay Seasoning! Please tell me you use this wonderful blend of spices! On the can it says:
CELERY SALT (SALT, CELERY SEED), SPICES (INCLUDING MUSTARD, RED PEPPER, BLACK PEPPER, BAY [LAUREL] LEAVES, CLOVES, ALLSPICE [PIMENTO], GINGER, MACE, CARDAMOM, CINNAMON) AND PAPRIKA.. I use Old Bay Seasoning in my egg salad, too.

I added about 1 teaspoon, stirred it and this was it!  This was my secret ingredient to Ina's recipe, and I loved it.

Still, I though the soup was to thin for a chowder, so I grabbed my other secret ingredient. To thicken soup, I prefer potato starch flour over regular flour.  The best way to use this is to temper it-- in a bowl I started with 2 Tablespoons and added some hot soup and whisked it together.

I realized that I really wanted a bread with this soup-- at the last minute. I quickly made a batch of my skillet corn bread and some honey butter to go with it. Hey, I'm a Yankee, so I like sweet cornbread! I also made a side salad to complete the meal.

Now, for a garnish of bacon...

Ah, a hearty and thick chowder, with...

Hot cornbread and honeybutter...

Heaven! The sweet corn is still a reminder that summer wasn't that long ago... and I'll tell you that this soup tasted even better than the day before.  I think that the Old Bay Seasoning took the flavor of this soup up another notch. Do you hear me, Ina?

If you are receiving my postings via feed burner, please JUMP to my blog if you'd like to print the recipes below: