Are you cheering on the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, India, Russia, Switzerland, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, or any other country that might read this blog? Is your throat sore from screaming, "Jump higher! Go faster! Stick the landing!"? Well have I got a soup for you that will soothe even the most ardent fan and leave you going for the gold... corn that is! Hey-oh!
Golden Corn and Crab Chowder
(so corny, I almost didn't write that joke)
We made this because our friend came back from a fishing job with that rare problem: too much crab and not enough fridge/freezer space. That's where we (my husband and I) bravely stepped up and said, "Don't worry. If eating Dungeness crab is a team sport, call us Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsch Jennings!"
"We freaking LOVE crabs!"
You'll need:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning blend
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 - 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or broth
2 - 4 cups whole milk
3 cups corn kernels, scraped fresh from the cob, canned, or frozen
8 ounces cooked lump crab meat (cooking tips
here)
Directions:
1. Heat a deep pot over medium heat. Add oil and butter. As you chop your veggies, add them to the pot: potatoes, celery, onion, and red bell pepper (this helps even out the cooking time for the potatoes with everything else!). Add a bay leaf to the pot. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and Old Bay seasoning then saute it all for 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle in your flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the broth and combine. Next comes the milk, stirring to combine. I would aim for the lower end of the broth/milk amounts since I like a thicker chowder, but I included the original measurements (2 cups broth, 4 cups milk) if you're into that.
3. Bring the soup up to a low boil. Add the GOLDEN corn (see that Olympic theme?) and crab meat and simmer for 5 minutes.
soup's on!
4. Adjust the soup seasonings (the original recipe called for a whole tablespoon of Old Bay, and that always seems too overpowering for me, but I did end up sprinkling a bit more in along with some garlic powder to taste). Ladle soup into soup bowls or bread bowls if you want to get fancy like the sourdough bowl I had in
San Francisco.
look at all that goodness!
(yes, I took this out on my back porch for some natural light)
I hope you enjoy it! If I had my way, I would've doubled up the crab (eat it if you got it!), but hopefully you'll love this soup as much as I love these ladies:
