6 ears of shucked sweet corn
2 cups heavy cream
4 cups chicken broth
1 diced red pepper
1/2 lb bacon, cut into small pieces
1 diced yellow onion
1-2 garlic cloves, depending on your taste
4 chopped up carrots
4 potatoes (peel ’em and dice ’em)
1 T tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Find your sharpest knife and use it to cut the kernels off the ears of corn. Set the corn to the side, and don’t throw away the cobs! Put those into a deep frying pan or big saucepan and pour the cream over the top. Let the cobs simmer in the cream for about 10 minutes, then turn the heat off. Keep the cobs in there until you need the cream.
In a different pot (there are a lot of dishes to do once this is finished…it’s worth it), toss in the chopped up bacon and cook it over medium-low. Scoop the cooked bacon out but leave all that fat on the bottom. You’ll add the bacon back in later on.
Add the red pepper, onion, garlic and carrots to the bacon fat and stir them around a few minutes. Make sure the vegetables are softened up a bit. Add the potatoes and keep stirring things up (as all great women do). Add the corn and give it another minute or two, then stir in the chicken stock, the tarragon, and the cream (NOW take the cobs out and toss them).
Simmer the chowder for about 20 minutes and garnish with the bacon pieces (sometimes I just toss them right in as the chowder simmers, though).
The original recipe came from Schuler’s Restaurant in Marshall, Michigan, but has been adapted over time to fit the taste of The Critics.
Hillary Danaher 