Fresh corn chowder

Fall is here and we are just coming to the end of the all the wonderful local crops such as corn and tomatoes, so now is the time to make the most of them.  I can only eat so many boiled buttered ears of corn, never mind how good they are, I can not say the same for husband however, who could eat fresh buttered corn for dinner every night and I mean just corn!

After the Terry Fox run a couple of weeks ago, there were 6 for lunch, so I used the 5 ears of corn that I had left over from the previous night to make soup.

I am sure you can buy some special gadget for stripping corn, but I do not have such a thing so I had to do it with a knife.  This works fine but does make quite a mess.

Soup for six

4 slices of back bacon (regular bacon would do, but I am trying to cut out fat)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion chopped
5 ears of corn stripped
5 small yellow potatoes chopped into about 2" chunks
6 cups of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage
1 cup of milk

Crockpot South West chicken soup

This is another of my low calorie but tasty meals that I can make ahead for lunch at work or dinner at home.  I got this idea from  this recipe for slow cooker chicken tortilla soup.  But I did not have any corn tortilla's to fry and as always I changed it little to match what I had on hand.

This made enough for 4.

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 15oz can sweet whole corn kernels, drained
• 15oz can diced tomatoes, drained or I used my home canned tomato puree
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• one medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 1 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of regular chili powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice of one lime
• Handfull of cilantro chopped
• Shredded cheese for serving.

To your slow cooker add first 10 ingredients.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Remove chicken breasts.

Corn bread

I bought some corn bread pans in the shape of ears of corn many years ago in New York, and though I do not use them too often I have to say corn bread made in these does look very pretty.

Since we were going to a Texas themed pot luck I thought that these would be appropriate to take along with my salad.  If you are not lucky enough to own corn shaped tins, regular muffin tins would work well.  Or you can use a cast iron frying which is what the original recipe suggests.

I got this recipe from one of my all time favourite cook books by Jon Hadamuscin "Special Occasions" and other than I usually do not cook it in a cast iron frying pan, I follow the recipe exactly! This quantity makes 1 10" cast iron frying pan or about a dozen muffins.

3/4 cup of flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cups of ground yellow corn meal
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage
1 large egg beaten
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of melted bacon fat or butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese (I used white cheddar)

Pre heat the oven to to 425 generously grease either a 10 inch cast iron frying pan or corn pone pans or heavy duty muffin tins.

Southwest bean and corn salad.

This is one of the salads that I made to go with the Oven baked chicken with garlic It is another old favourite from  one of John Hadamuscin's books.  It is a great salad to make ahead that can keep for quite a while and still taste good even the next day.

You could use any beans for this, canned or cooked dried beans, if you used canned beans then this can be made in just a few minutes at any time of year.  But in corn season it is really good with shucked fresh corn either boiled or barbecued. But this not corn season so I had to use canned, though frozen would also suffice.

Again I made a large quantity, but I will give ingredients for 4.

1 can of corn (or one ear of corn shucked)
1 can of kidney beans or equivalent dry beans cooked
1 can of chickpeas
1 red pepper copped
 4 green onions chopped