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Recipe: Bacon & Corn Chowder

Somehow, somewhere between over-indulging in holiday baking, dinners and goodies, I found myself craving a heart bowl of soup. I was flipping through Bob Blumer’s Glutton for Pleasure cookbook at my mom’s house and was intrigued by his Corn Chowda soup. Since I didn’t have corn cobs on hand, and had no intention of BBQ’ing anything during a burst of freezing rain on Boxing Day, I adapted his recipe and used a frozen bag of corn. Blasphemous I know, but there was no way I was movingbut with a few strips of Irving Farm’s dry-cured bacon and some creativity with the broiler in my mother’s oven, I cranked out a pot of soup that filled my bacon craving and warmed my belly.

Bacon & Corn Chowder

Ingredients

1 bag frozen corn
1 red or orange bell pepper, seeded and halved
6-8 slices of bacon
3 leeks, white and pale green section only, diced
2 tablespoons Canola oil
1 large white onion
6 cloves garlic, diced
4 cups soup stock
1 cup cream, whole or 2% milk
1 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

Directions

1. Place corn and pepper on baking sheet.Turn broiler on to 400 degrees. Watch carefully and  turn corn every few minutes until nicely browned. Let pepper skin to blacken. 
2. Remove corn from the oven. Skin and seed the bell pepper, then dice it finely. Saute corn and bell pepper in a large pan with canola oil for 10 minutes or until the corn begins to brown. Reserve. 
3. In a food processor, purée half the grilled mixture with half the stock. Reserve. In a stockpot over medium-high heat, add bacon, garlic, onion, and leeks for approximately 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until contents begin to brown. To the stockpot add the pureed corn mixture, remaining stock, remaining corn and bell pepper and cilantro. Turn up the heat until it boils then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Add cream or milk, season with salt and pepper, and it is ready to serve.