Poblano Corn Chowder

Mudflower's Note:

This soup was created as a way to use up some surplus corn, and it was a HUGE hit with every diverse set of tastebuds in both my family and my husband's family. The spiciness can be adjusted by adding more or less chipotle and adobo sauce. If you are serving kids, try using only 1 poblano and one chipotle, with no adobe sauce. You can add a little extra red bell pepper (sweet) for color, too. My 2 1/2 year old lapped it up this way. But even my pregnant SIL, who has acid reflux and isn't eating spicy food, made a special exception for this soup when it was spicy, because it was so good. It's flexible. I hope you like it :) The secret is really making the broth with the cobs and scraping off some of the extra corn bits :) But I think it might be okay with frozen corn too, in the winter or if you are short on time. By the way, when I say chopped, I mean pretty big bite size pieces...You want some big chunks to bite into. Except the poblanos. Probably want to distribute those a bit.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 10-12

Yield: 15.0 cups

• 8 ears corn , as fresh as possible
• 2 poblano peppers , seeded and chopped into small pieces
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo
• 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
• 5 medium idaho russet potatoes , cut into one inch cubes (approximately)
• 8 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• 1 large Spanish onion , chopped
• 1 red bell pepper , chopped
• 1 orange bell pepper , chopped
• 3 garlic cloves , sliced
• 1 cup cream
• 8 ounces low-fat monterey jack cheese or 8 ounces mexican queso fresco
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons non-fat cooking spray
• cilantro , for garnish

Directions:

1. Cut up the potatoes and remove the kernels of corn from the cobs with a knife. Set aside in a large bowl, or wherever you have room. (I held the corn IN a bowl while I cut so the kernels didn't fly everywhere so much.).
2. In a large pot (this recipe makes about 14 cups, so pretty large), boil the broth and the corn cobs together for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Remove the cobs and let cool. Scrape the remaining corn bits into the pot of broth. You can use a butter knife or spoon. Let this pot rest for a moment.
4. In a large skillet, melt butter or use non-fat cooking spray and saute the chopped onions and bell peppers until just tender.
5. Add to this skillet the garlic and poblanos and continue to saute until poblanos are tender too.
6. Dump the onion/pepper/garlic mixture into the broth pot. Add the chipotle(s) (whole so they can be removed if you like) and some of the adobo sauce (2 T. is a rough estimate).
7. Bring to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes.
8. Add potatoes and corn and simmer until potatoes are al dente ;) Maybe 20 minutes?.
9. Turn off the heat. Add cream.
10. Ladle about half of the soup into a blender (you may have to do this in batches) and blend with the cheese. (I do 2 batches, so I use half the cheese in the first batch and half in the second.).
11. Call everyone to dinner.
12. You can offer cilantro as a garnish (or even add a bit to the soup pot if everyone likes it.).

Reviews

[Fred and Christie]

Really good recipe, here. I used a stick blender to deal with the blenderizing part of it, and had to do a few minor substitutions since I didn't have all the elements on hand, but this is a very facile recipe for tinkering with -- a great base to build that chowder you've been thinking of (as I did). :)