Saturday I stopped by my favorite coffee shop after exercise since I had skipped breakfast and there on the menu board was the Soup du Jour, Poblano Corn Chowder. Boy that sounded good on a cold winter's day- alas it was way too early for lunch.
BUT the thought of that Soup du Jour stuck with me throughout the morning and I knew that back home in the End of the Rainbow Valley the freezer held our summer's bounty of poblano peppers and corn. It was a no brainer what one of our weekend dinners would be.
After combining a couple of recipes, the end product turned out super yummy. How could I not share it with you?
POBLANO CORN CHOWDER
INGREDIENTS:
3 poblanos, halved and seeded
olive oil
20 oz frozen corn, blended
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
1 stick celery
4 T butter, divided
1 1/2 c low fat milk ( can mushroom soup)
1/4 c flour + 1 T (unless you use the can of mushroom soup)
1/4 t salt
1/4 T ground red pepper
1/4 t cumin
1 1/2 - 2 c low sodium fat free chicken broth
4 oz cream cheese, softened
Garnishes: poblano strips/chopped red pepper and ground black pepper to add some color...
Place poblano halves skin side up, spray with olive oil and broil 6 inches from broiler 5-6 minutes on foil covered cooking sheet until charred and blistered.
While broiling saute onion, garlic and celery in 2 T butter for 5 minutes. Add remaining 2 T butter . Stir in flour to make roux if not using cream of mushroom soup.
After broiling poblanos, wrap them in the foil and let sit for ten minutes. Skin charred poblanos and chop. Set aside.
Add milk, broth, corn to sauteed roux of onion, garlic and celery for 10 minutes.
Blend in softened cream cheese and stir. Heat 10-15 minutes on low.
Season to taste.
Serve with a crusty peasant bread.
YUM.
It's that time of year again and with everything in the garden being a month ahead due to the heat, we weren't so sure about the bicolored corn we had planted. We had had a bumper crop last year and actually opted to not plant as much this year as we still had at least 8 packages in the freezer.
The saying around here is that if the corn isn't knee high by July 4th, you probably aren't going to have a good crop. Well as you can tell by this pic, it even surpassed my knees! So we thought we were good except with this heat, there was no rain. There was wind in the End of the Rainbow Valley and as I said lots of heat. There would be clouds and no reprieve. Natureman realized if we were going to save the garden, we had to do something we rarely do and that was to bring a hose up to the garden.
But not all farmers could irrigate and the fear was that with the drought, they would lose their crops. Thankfully our area was blessed with a good couple days of rain toward the end of July and beginning of August and we all needed it.
AND that welcomed line from Natureman came, "I think the corn is ready." Ah music to my ears as there's nothing better that corn straight from the garden straight into the pot of boiling water and onto one's plate. Sho' enuf it was!
This year still might have corn being ready at different times due to the weather but yesterday was the 'first' picking. Some folks asked about the process for freezing. This is our simple process.
1. Start boiling water.
2. Pick your corn that's ready.
(Check by pulling husk down a bit to check kernel size)
3. Remove husks and silks.
4. Place cobs in boiling water for four minutes.
5. Fill one side of the sink with cold water.
6. Pour off hot water in other side of side of sink.
7. Immerse cobs immediately in cold water sink. (This stops cooking)
8. Remove cobs's kernels with sharp knife, slicing from bigger end to smaller end.
9. Scoop 3 ladles into zip loc quart size bags
10. Remove excess air by leaving bag open enough for a straw at one end of bag.
11. Place straw in opening, sucking carefully to not suck up any kernels.:)
12. Close quickly.
13. Label with permanent marker with year and CORN.
14. Place in freezer.
Voila vacuum sealed 2-person servings of corn straight from the garden into the freezer to enjoy throughout the year.
BUT we are not the only ones happy that it's corn time as the goats are the recipients of the corn husks, silks and de-kernelled cobs.
Nothing goes to waste here in the End of the Rainbow Valley ...
