Recipe Review from 9/10/12

Oh glorious fall!  Beautiful temperatures, brilliant blue skies, crisp mornings.  And I do mean crisp.  Had our first kiss of frost this past week.  Not enough to kill anything, but enough to keep the winter and summer squash, kale, and tomatoes covered.  Trying to keep stuff on the vine as long as possible, which means that by the time you read this on Monday, temps will have dropped to the 50* with snow possible.  Bleh...too early for the "S" word!!! 


Missouri Corn Chowder  (Ckng Lght BB)
Moving into September seems to hearld the beginning of soup season.  As the garden hits its peak (at least up here in N MN), it's time to be thinking of ways to use all that produce we planted.  The Vegetable Lasagna I posted about last week was one such recipe.  This is another.  I also added one diced patty pan squash just to bulk things up a bit and use up some more produce.  You will note, no potatoes in this one - just lots of good veggies.  The corn is plenty sweet so you don't need to add any sugar  - just a tich of salt to make all the flavors behave. 

To make this vegetarian, skip the bacon completely and substitute vegetable broth.  Can be made GF if you use cornstarch or arrowroot instead of flour as a thickener. 

This made 8 lunches for us.

3 bacon slices, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
5 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 9 ears) or frozen, thawed
2 medium onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped  skipped. Lazy.  I could have used some Swiss Chard stalks. 
1/3 cup all purpose flour
4 cups (or more) chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 cup whipping cream  half n half works just fine and cuts back on some of the fat
Ground white pepper

Saute bacon in heavy large pot over medium heat until fat is rendered and bacon begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Combine 1/4 cup of each bell pepper in small bowl and set aside. Add all remaining bell peppers, 2-1/2 cups corn kernels, chopped onions and celery to pot and saute until onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle flour over and stir 5 minutes. Gradually mix in 4 cups chicken stock. Add thyme. Cover and simmer until soup thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Stir cream into soup. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover reserved bell peppers, remaining corn and soup separately and refrigerate.)

Saute reserved bell peppers and remaining 2-1/2 cups corn in medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until heated through, about 4 minutes.
Bring soup to simmer, thinning with more stock if desired. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with sauteed corn and pepper mixture and serve.