The weather has been very changeable over this first week in isolation. There has been several days where it was pouring with rain, a couple where it was sunny and warm, yesterday was really misty and today its overcast and grey. Weather on the wintry side is when soup is one of my meals of choice, and the recipe I am going to share with you today is one from my childhood: corn chowder.

Ingredients:

1 white onion

1 carrot

1 potato

50 grams of butter

2 Tbsp of flour

1 cup of milk

1 can of whole kernel corn

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional ingredients:

1 rasher of bacon

Diced chicken (I prefer to use smoked chicken)

Pumpkin

Sweet potato/kumara

Method:

Peel and chop all of the vegetables. These vegetables are going to be boiling while the chowder base is made, so cut them up quite small so they will cook more quickly. Put into a pot and pour just enough water over the top of them that they are covered. Bring to the boil then turn down the heat so they are simmering, we will come back to them later.

In a large pot melt the butter on medium heat. If you are adding uncooked meat such as bacon or chicken, brown the outside of the meat in the butter.

This chowder recipe uses a white-sauce base. Add the flour to the butter and whisk it in (it will look really lumpy), let it brown for 10 seconds.

Pour in about half of the brine from the canned corn into this flour-butter mixture and whisk. It should become smooth and runny, like a sauce. When the mixture starts to thicken up, or even clump again, add the rest of the brine and keep whisking (this is the part where the mixture is most likely to stick and burn so don’t stop whisking). At this point don’t be afraid to turn down the heat to prevent sticking and to give yourself more time between the saucy stage and the thickening stage.

When you have added all the brine begin to add the milk a quarter of a cup at a time while continuing to whisk. By this stage the time between adding the milk and it thickening should be increasing. Add the corn kernels to the pot once you have added in all of the milk. There will still be a little bit of liquid in there so you will have to keep whisking until it thickens up again. Once it is thick and creamy turn the heat down to low; enough that it will stay warm and not burn without being constantly whisked.

The other pot should be done by now. If the liquid in the pot is too high then the chowder will become runny again, so you may need to drain off some of the water. Mash the veggies in the water. They do not need to be a smooth puree, just mashed enough that they are mixed up and there aren’t any large lumps of identifiable vegatable.

Add the mashed vegetables into the large pot with the white sauce base and combine. Salt and pepper may now be added to taste. I like to serve it with toasted ciabatta bread as the slight sourness of the ciabatta contrasts with the sweetness of the corn.

This recipe serves 2 but is easily doubled or tripled if you have more mouths to feed. It reheats well so put any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container. It will form a skin when cooled, so if you want to avoid the skin use plastic wrap instead and have the wrap touching the top of the liquid to prevent air getting to it.