Corn Chowder

Chowder at Its Corny Best That's the title of the article for the Vegetarian Corn Chowder recipe by J.M. Hirsch published in this week's Washington Post food section. I recreated the recipe and I agree this is the best corn chowder. It does not have bacon and has whole milk instead of heavy cream resulting in more intense corn flavor. And it's timely that today it's raining the whole day and the temperature is a very nice 60F (16C) outside, the best time to have this end of summer corn chowder.

Ingredients: 7 fresh ear corns, 4 cups whole milk, 2 TBS olive oil, 1 diced large yellow onion, 1 diced large russet potato, 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves, 4 minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper. To prepare: in a large pot over medium-low heat, heat the milk until bubbles just begin to break the surface. Meanwhile cut the corn kernels, reserving the cobs, set the corn kernels aside. When the milk is warm add the cobs and cook for 10 minutes, this will flavor the milk. In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions, potatoes and thyme and cook for 8 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute. Remove the cobs from the milk and discard. Add the potato onion mixture to the milk, increase the heat to medium, then add the corn kernels and cook for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.