Corn Chowder

Corn chowder is a great comfort food and it is even children’s favorite food color – beige. With the potatoes cooked in bacon fat and bacon added, it has a nice smokey flavor on top of the sweet corn flavor.  It can sit on the stove on simmer for hours, or it can sit in a crock pot, or it can easily be reheated in the microwave. It can also be made pretty quickly. I make it with skim milk and use flour to thicken it. I try to forget I use bacon fat and then I can convince myself it isn’t too bad for me. 

½ pound bacon

2 medium size russet potatoes or baking potatoes because they are firm potatoes.  Peel and chop into ½ x ½ pieces or whatever you consider “bite size”

2 cups chopped onion or 1 10oz. bag of frozen, chopped onion

3 bay leaves

4 cups of skim milk

20 oz. frozen corn

2  14 ¾ oz. cans of creamed corn

2  14 ½ oz. cans of vegetable broth

½ cup of flour

Salt and pepper

Chop the bacon into ¼ inch pieces and put in large stock pot set on medium high. Sauté until bacon is crispy. Use a slotted spoon and remove bacon and place bacon on a plate lined with paper towels.

  Do not discard the bacon fat. The bacon fat can wait for you at room temperature while your run out, just put the cooked bacon in the refrigerator and put the potatoes in a bowl of cold water and leave them at room temperature. The water stops the potato from turning brown. There are probably ‘health code rules’ against leaving chopped potatoes at room temperature in water, but I have never had a problem.

I wouldn’t leave them like that over night, but an hour or so has never been a problem for me. Drain the potatoes well before you add to the recipe. Get bacon fat hot again. Add chopped potato to the bacon fat and sauté on medium heat until the potato just starts to get soft. 

The amount of time will depend on the size of the potato chunks, but check after 5 minutes and add only a minute at a time until potatoes are just a little soft.  Stir frequently. Use a fork to test the firmness of the potatoes.

Your fork should meet resistance almost as soon as you stab the potato.  The potato is going to get cooked more after you add the rest of the ingredients. When potatoes are just getting soft, sprinkle with ½ cup flour and stir well.

Then slowly pour in milk, stirring completely between each cup you add. Then add the vegetable broth, corn, and bay leaves and bring to a boil over medium heat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. As soon as it starts to boil, turn down heat to simmer. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Then add the cooked bacon. Taste the chowder and add salt and pepper if needed by just sprinkling them in and tasting again.

 The pot of chowder will stay hot without any heat under it for at least an hour, so if you have to run out, just turn off the heat and go.

* Turn heat back on when you get home to reheat.  

If you are going to be gone more than an hour, you can put the chowder in a crock pot set on low.  Do not let the chowder boil again so be sure the crock pot doesn’t get too hot.  It will probably only take 1- 1 ½ hours to get very hot in the crock pot even on low. Is there someone home to watch it and turn it off if it starts to bubble? Anyone old enough to be home alone can do that for you. Set the timer to remind them to check it.

To reheat in the microwave, reheat on high no more than 1 minute at a time. A bowl of chowder right from the refrigerator will probably take 2 – 2 ½ minutes to get hot.  Stir every minute while you are microwaving it.

*An hour sitting on the stove with no heat is just my rule of thumb. The chowder is going to take longer than that to cool enough to put in the refrigerator, so you have at least that much time to run out. How long it takes to cool will depend on the size of your pot and the type of pot. To me this means that if I turn the chowder on every hour and get it hot again, I can do this for many hours at a time while I wait for everyone to come home and eat. Or anyone who is at home while I am running around can do that for me.