Day Twenty-Three: Crab Chowder

Taking advantage of the lump crab readily available here in Baltimore, I wanted to make a crab soup. I had Maryland crab soup just a couple weeks ago and it was delicious, but I wasn't ready to have it again so soon. You can never go wrong with chowder so I decided to try this crab and corn soup.

Courtesy of Taste of Home

Crab and Corn Chowder

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3-1/2 cups milk
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 can (16 ounces) lump crabmeat
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 small green peppeer, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 can (8-1/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Directions

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Add flour; cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Gradually add milk; cook and stir until thickened. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 35-40 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Day Fourteen: Autumn Soup in Winter

As usual I bought some Johnsonville smoked sausage on sale. As usual I found a lovely Taste of Home recipe to utilize it. Soups on!

Autumn Sausage Corn Soup

10-12 servings

1 lb fully cooked smoked sausage, sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
3 1/2 cups water
1 pkg frozen corn
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 can tomato paste
1/4 tsp salt, optional
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 In a large skillet, cook, and stir sausage over medium-high eat until browned; set aside.

2 In a dutch oven or soup pot, cook and stir flour in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add the onion, green pepper and green onions; saute until tender.

3 Stir in the water, corn, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, cayenne pepper, ans sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Day Two: Chowda

I've never tasted let alone made corn chowder, but as usual I had some extra cans of corn (regular and cream) that I bought on sale and wanted to use them. I looked up some recipes all over the internet but none of them seemed quite right so based on what I found I created my own. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients

1 can of whole kernel corn, drained
2 cans creamed corn
2 small white potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large boneless skinless chicken breast
1 medium onion
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup milk
Fresh cracked pepper
Two strips bacon, crisped for garnish

Prep

In a large pot, crisp bacon and remove. Leaving the bacon grease, sauté onions and celery. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add chicken. Poach chicken then remove, let cool enough to cube into bite sized pieces. While the chicken cools, add the potatoes and carrots. When tender add all the corn, milk, and the chicken; simmer until whole corn is done. Add cornstarch to thicken if desired and season with cracked pepper. Serve in a bowl topped with crumbled bacon or green onion.