Sept 12-14 Corn Chowder for Little Shack

Sept 12     TIFF = no dinner
Sept 13     TIFF = another night of no dinner but I did have a giant glass of red wine
Sept 14     Fresh Sun dried tomato pesto bread and corn chowder

During most of the film festival I don't eat dinner, Shack is at working eating catered dinner and The Kid is being fed by The Neighbours if he can muster up a pathetic enough face. Nobody really eats well for that ten days but luckily, I got a day off mid festival so I went hog wild. I made peach jam, bread and a big pot of a classic corn chowder, one of Little Shack's favourite soups. To make it a bit more hearty, I added a bit of chicken and used evaporated milk in place of heavy cream to change it up a bit but I made enough to freeze so the poor little bugger can have it again at a later date. He has been so patient about this whole crazy no repeating any dinners for a year but he is starting to really crave some of his comfort foods.
Every week he asks "so, how much longer is this thing going to last?"
every week i give the same answer.
"until new year's eve."
poor little bugger.

Little Shack's Favourite Corn Chowder

3 cobs of corn
1 litre of chicken stock
3 strips of bacon
1 tbls olive oil
1/4 red onion, chopped finely
1 unpeeled red potato , chopped into about 1/2" dice
1 white potato, chopped into about 1/2" dice (I used a jamaican yam - you can also sub in a sweet potato for one of the potatoes)
1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
fresh thyme
1 370 ml can of evaporated milk
1 scallion sliced finely
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

First off, cut the kernels off the cobs and set the kernels aside. Put the naked cobs in a pot with the 1 litre of chicken stock, bring to a boil and then lower to a really gentle simmer for about ten minutes and turn to low and just let it steep on the back burner until you are ready to use it in the soup. Let it sit and get good and corny.

Chop up your bacon and cook it off in the olive oil in a heavy bottomed stock pot. When it has rendered all of it's fat and is nice and crispy, remove the bacon with a slotted spoon. Add the onion to the fat and sauté them over med heat for about 5 minutes.
Strain the chicken stock and discard the cobs and add the strained stock to the onions. Bring to a simmer and then add the potatoes,chicken and salt and pepper.
Let it cook until the potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes. At this point, you can add the corn kernels and then the can of evaporated milk and the thyme. Taste and adjust the thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Let the soup simmer for another 10 minutes.
To serve, put soup in a bowl and crumble up some crisp bacon and sprinkle that over the top.