chicken corn chowda – combat dreary with dairy!

it’s cloudy, it’s cold, it’s windy, it’s off-n-on rainy and it’s november. it’s also a night where I have some hours with just the catties, and I always feel that time is best spent making food. it’s doubly rewarding to have a nice hot meal ready for when pony comes home from work.
we had a couple ears of corn in the fridge on the verge of not being so great anymore, so soup was the obvious choice. and while corn chowder is nice, I think it’s even nicer with chicken or turkey. tonight I used turkey because they had big ol’ leg/thigh combos on at the store for super cheap. inexpensive dark meat? sign me up!

also, before I get to the good part, I feel I need to honestly say that I absolutely used two recipes on foodnetwork to figure out how I wanted to attempt this meal. one was paula’s which I used as a guide for ingredients, and the other was tyler’s, which I used more for the method… though mine is different from both in the end. often when I’ve never made something before, or haven’t made it in a long time, I’ll seek out some recipes as a refresher or rough guide, then adjust to my own taste.
okok, on with the good show:

a good wooden spoon of butter (maybe 1/3 C? maybe 1/2 C?)
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, diced
3 sticks of celery, diced
1 leek, cut in half and sliced into thin semi-circles (I could do a whole post on how to clean/cut leeks, so look it up if you’re not sure)
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
a good glurg of white wine (say, 1/3-1/2 C)
1 tsp dijon mustard
several cracks of black pepper
thyme – 4 sprigs chopped, or 1 1/2 tsp of the dry stuff
3 C chicken stock (or veg if you wanna do this meat-free)
chicken or turkey, cooked and shredded – for turkey, a leg and thigh was lots. for chicken, 8 or 10 thighs… or 4 thighs and 2 breasts maybe
5-6 medium-sized new potatoes, cut into bite-size chunks
3 ears of corn or 3ish C frozen corn
1 zucchini, sliced into semi circles
2 C whipping cream
1/3 C flour or cornstarch

. a couple hours before you want to make soup, crank yer oven to 375 and get your chicken/turkey in there (in an uncovered dish with pepper and poultry seasoning on it) and bake for an hour. let it cool and then begin your soup!

. chuck the butter and oil in a big pot on medium-low heat
. add the onion, celery, leek and garlic. let these get all glossy, but not brown. stir every couple of minutes
. when the veg is translucent and lovely, add the thyme, pepper, mustard and wine. allow to simmer for a few minutes
. add the chicken/turkey, potatoes and chicken stock. slap a lid on it and let it simmer for a good half hour

. meanwhile, if you’ve got corn still on the cob, get it off. the easiest way I know is the guy fieri way (what a FN heavy post this is): get two bowls, one really big, the other small and with a flat bottom. tip the small bowl upside down into the big bowl. rest one end of corn on the smaller bowl and use a big knife to carve off the niblets in one motion. as you do this, the corn falls into the big bowl, and not all over your counter. happy days!
. add the corn  and zucchini to the soup mix and let simmer for ten minutes
. in a big cup or bowl or something, whisk the flour/starch into the cream until it’s all smooth. pour this into the soup and stir constantly as you do to avoid lumps (especially if you’re using corn starch)

. if it’s too thick, add a little milk to thin it out, or some more chicken stock
. let everything come up to a gentle boil and then shut ‘er down. it’s all done, and in the most fabulous of ways!
. serve it nice and hot with some really nice buttered bread and a green salad or all by it’s thick, creamy, hearty self

also, if you wanted to get really decadent, you could add 2 C grated cheddar and 1/4 C chopped green chilis or pickled jalapeños just before serving. so much savour, so much flavour!

the satisfaction of new from old – food

I derive an epic amount of satisfaction from making something terribly tasty from leftovers. you’ll always need to invest a little more, but it’s so worth it. BAM masher soup. Also, there’s no photo, because it’s a truly ugly looking soup, not quite as bad as french canadian pea soup, but still. let’s just say it tastes miles better than it looks.

1 tbsp butter and a glurg of oil
1/3 of an onion diced fine
1 stick of celery also finey fine
1 or 2 mediumish carrots cut to thumbnail size
a few shakes each of garlic powder, poultry seasoning, thyme, cracked black pepper
1 round tsp of chicken bouillion
1 bay leaf
1/4 C white wine
any leftover gravy you may have
2 C mashed potatoes
1-3 potatoes (depending on their size) sliced into thin discs
water

. get a goodly sized pot on medium low heat. put the oils in and melt them together
. add the onion, carrot, celery and spices. when they start to get glossy, add the bay leaf, left over gravy and wine. cook off
. add the mash, boillion and water. stir, cover and simmer on low for twenty or so minutes
. add the sliced potatoes and continue to simmer until the slices are tender

butter up some bread or biscuits and tuck in
also, please, stray from the outline here and experiment. I don’t actually measure anything I cook (the baking, I do for obvious reasons) but prefer to go by my nose and tastebuds. throw in some diced tomato or spinach or peas. maybe substitute regular potatoes for sweet potatoes and add half water, half apple juice… just be creative and adventuresome. it won’t always turn out, but I think what you learn from making a bad dish will always outweigh the frustration of having to chuck your dinner and have peanut butter sandwiches instead.