Corn Chowder

I am discovering a new love of corn. The second time we got corn in our CSA there was a corn chowder recipe adapted from Simply Recipes another food blog I love so I decided I had to try it. Conveniently almost all the other needed ingredients were also in the box that week or left over from the week before, I think all I needed to by was a bell pepper. The original recipe calls for bacon or bacon fat which was obviously not used, but I did sprinkle some fake bacon I chopped up to add some smokey flavor, tasty but not necessary, I didn't add to any of the left overs. You could add more or less of the veggies, definitely not a recipe where exact science is needed. Garlic would be good sauteed with the onion/carrot/celery.

recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
  
• 3 ears of sweet corn, kernels removed from the cobs , cobs reserved
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 1/2 cups milk (I used rice milk which I think added a pleasant sweetness)
  
• 1 potato, peeled and diced (I used a few small knobbly potatoes from our CSA - possible Rose Finn)
  
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves

1. in a large sauce pan. saute onion in butter until soft about 5 minutes. add carrots and celery and cook about 5 more minutes.
2. break the evacuated cobs in half and add to sauce pan. add milk and bay leaf and bring to boil.
   
3. reduce heat to a bare simmer. heat should be as low as possible to maintain a gentle simmer but prevent scalding (I don't know if scalding is as big of a concern with rice milk). cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. discard cobs and bay leave. raise heat - add potato, pepper, salt and pepper. lower heat once a low simmer is reached again. simmer 15 minutes or under potatoes are almost fork tender.
5. raise heat - add corn and thyme. lower heat again to maintain a low simmer. simmer for 5 minutes.

makes about 5 servings