Chowder!!

Can you tell I'm excited about this post?? (don't miss all the exclamation marks!) Chowder is my favorite soup, period. Its one of those really filling, main course soups and I love how comforting a bowl of chowder can be at the end of a long day. Talking of which, I apologize for the quality of the photos, I made this late in the evening, and the light, to be honest, sucked big time.

The other reason I love chowder is because you can play around with the recipe so much! The recipe that follows incorporates a lot of things i found lying around in the kitchen and refrigerator... You can add or remove things as you feel right...

You will need- butter, milk, potatoes, an onion, celery, sweet corn, paprika, a sausage, pepper corns, a bay leaf and parsley (which I don't have) and A.P.flour (which I forgot to photograph)

Chop the onion-a nice fine dice should do.

Do the same with the celery.

AND the potato! (ok, it gets more interesting after this, I promise!)

Melt some butter in a pan, and add the onions once it foams.

Then add the celery, sweat the two for a couple of minutes. The kitchen should start smelling heavenly just about now..

Bung in the potatoes. Cook for about 4-5 minutes.

Then add the parsley, (I'm pretending I am, because I hunted all evening and couldn't find any fresh parsley anywhere :( can you feel my pain?) a bay leaf, the peppercorns and about 2-3 cups of water. Let the water boil, then lower to a simmer.

Cook until the potatoes are tender.

In the meanwhile mix about half a cup of milk with a couple of tablespoons of A.P.flour. First remove the bay leaf and parsley sprigs. Then pour the milk and flour mixture into the pan.

After that add the rest of the milk. Bring to a boil. Let the chowder get as thick as you would like it to be.

Chop and add the sausage.

And then the corn.

Serve hot in individual soup bowls (no, don't be greedy and try sampling right out of the pan/soup pot) garnished with smoky paprika. :)

RECIPE:

Butter - 25g

Flour - 2 tbspns

Milk - 300ml

Potato - 2 medium sized

Onion - 1 medium sized

Corn - 1 small can

Sausage - 1 or use tuna/bacon anything you like

Celery - 2 stalks

Bay Leaf - 1

Parsley - 1 sprig

Paprika, salt - as required

Peppercorns - 8-10

Water - 2 or 3 cups.

Finely dice onions, celery and potatoes.

Melt the butter.

Sweat the onions and celery.

Then add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the herbs, water and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Remove the bay leaf and parsley.

Mix half a cup of milk with the flour.

Add the mixture to the pan.

Add the remaining milk, bring to a boil.

Simmer until thick enough. Adjust seasoning.

Add the sausage (chopped up) and corn and cook for 3 minutes.

Serve garnished with smoky paprika.

Let me know if you liked it. (this is the MOST important step.)