About Me

I'm a full-time working mom of 3 in the IT industry, with a great husband. When not spending time with the family, I like to spend my time in the kitchen. I like to cook. I love to eat. I adore entertaining people. I prefer not to go by any particular recipe, but experiment on my own. I'm not professionally trained in any way and I don't claim to be correct on anything I might post. Meals are often tossed together at the last minute. Sometimes I think about them during the day, sometimes I browse my cook book library and compare ingredients of great chefs before me. Sometimes I scour the internet, and sometimes they are literally pulled from the freezer and tossed into a pan.

I also used to dabble in cake decorating. {shameless plug: Cakes By Jenn Facebook}

These are those stories. I play with my food.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

It's the Chicken and Corn Chowder Bowl

Football. Food. People. Must be the Super Bowl
And the Patriots were playing.  There was no way we weren't having a party.
Cooking for a crowd.  Something I love to do.  No matter how tired, this was going to happen.  It didn't matter that the weekend was full of Girl Scout Cookie booth sales, Sunday School teaching, house cleaning and whatever else my kids threw at me.  I was catering for a crowd and I would rally.

For playoffs I went with Chili and loaded nachos.  Clearly I had to up my game this time.  The return of loaded nachos was a must and a given, they were requested, by a friendly 7 year old even, so how could I say no?  But what else could I make for the crowd?  It was pot luck so I knew the staples would show up; wings, cupcakes, sliders.  All good.

But I wanted another soup.  And then it hit me.  Corn Chowder.  But not just any corn chowder.  My great grandparents' chicken and corn chowder.  A chowder I didn't have a recipe for.  A chowder I hadn't tasted in over 25 years.  Could it be done?  Called my dad, he certainly didn't have it.  So I dialed up Nana, she longer had the recipe, never wrote it down. "Oh I never liked that" she said.  Remembering that Nana really only eats food smothered in pepper and hamburgers burnt to hockey pucks.    Searching the internet?  Forget it.  Results showed up like "Easy Corn Chowder" and "Quick Chowder" and "Crock Pot Chowder" all including ingredients I knew weren't in it, and in reality should not be in it.  There was no recipe that could even come close to the flavors I knew were in it.  Just a 25 year old memory of the best soup I have ever had.  Challenge accepted.  It was time to play.  It's chicken.  It's corn.  It's soup.  What could go wrong?

Ingredients Pre-Game

Remember, I'm cooking for a crowd of people here, this is going to make a LOT.
  • Celery, 1 bunch/heart
  • Carrots, 4-6 depending on thickness and length
  • Vidalia Onion, medium (i only ever use Vidalia)
  • Garlic cloves (i used 3, would probably consider 4 or 5 next time but i LOVE garlic so yeah)
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt/Pepper
  • De-glazing liquid (pick one: water, stock, brandy, Marsala wine -> I used Marsala wine, my absolute new favorite cooking ingredient in the whole world)
  • Chicken Stock (64oz)
  • 8-10 small red potatoes (mine were little bigger than golf balls)
  • 1 Rotisserie Chicken cooked (easy peasy from your local deli)
  • 16oz can yellow corn
  • 8oz can white corn
  • 16oz creamed corn
  • Whole Milk or Cream

First Quarter

Step 4, looks like a lot! It cooks down.
  1. Dice celery, carrots and onion all the same size.
  2. Peel, Smash and finely chop the garlic.
  3. Set your stock pot on med-high to high heat and drizzle bottom with olive oil
  4. Once heated, toss in your mirepoix (celery, carrots, onion)
  5. Salt and pepper
  6. Saute on medium heat, continuously stir.  Keep going until onions become translucent and then start to caramelize a bit.
  7. While you're doing this, if you can multi-task, dice up your potatoes.


Second Quarter

If you notice the bottom of your pot turning brown.. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING.
    • Black, black is bad, but brown is good!  Brown is called "fond" which means flavor!
    • Get out your de-glazing liquid at this point and toss a splash or two in, stir around and scrape off the brown from the bottom of the pan.  You may need to do it twice depending on size of splash.
      • Through the steam, the bottom has "fond"
    • If it happens again, de-glaze again.












Half Time

You're going to be tempted to go watch Gaga, don't. You need to stay on top of the mirepoix to make sure it's only browning and turning translucent and not blackening the bottom of your pan.  If it starts to get black and burn, you're going to just taste burning at the end.  Turn the heat down if you're worried about it.  Keep stirring.


Third Quarter
  1. When the mirepoix is translucent, add just a touch more olive oil and toss in your garlic.
  2. Saute until garlic is soft.
  3. Pour in all 64oz of your chicken stock + an additional 32oz of water
  4. Add the potatoes.  Cover, turn up heat, and bring to a boil.
  5. ... take a breath, the hard part is over.

It's just vegetable soup at this point, with raw potatoes.

Fourth Quarter
  1. Open your cans of corn.
  2. Shred the chicken into pieces.
  3. Once the potatoes have been boiling on high for 10 minutes, add the chicken, add the corn.
  4. Return to boil.
  5. Use an 8oz can of the creamed corn and fill with whole milk/cream and pour into pot.
  6. if you want a creamier chowder, double this to 16oz milk/cream
  7. Bring everything back up to a rolling boil, then back off to a simmer.

Overtime

 Ladle it out, grab a spoon, sit back, relax and enjoy.


So my sister asks me "So, how'd it come out, as good as you remember?
Oh yeah, that and better I would say!
Roger That.
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