Maritime Style Corn Chowder

This is a simple recipe that from the first time I tried it reminded me of the Maritimes where corn, potato and salted meats were historically a mainstay of most diets. In the Maritimes corn chowder was found in most small restaurants and was a regular at the cafeteria where I worked. I recommend using Yukon Gold potatoes but any that you have on hand will work! Diet food this is not but on a cold winter day, it makes a wonderful hardy meal after skiing or shovelling snow!

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 1  kg potato
• 14  slices bacon, cooked & chopped
• 680  ml  creamed corn
• 680  ml  canned corn (preferrably peaches and cream)
• 370  ml evaporated milk
• 125  ml milk (or cream)
• 2  medium onions, diced
• 5  ml Worcestershire sauce
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

Directions

1. Peel and dice potato into 2 cm cubes. Cook in salt water for about 5 minutes, or until they are slightly cooked with still some firmness. Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, brown bacon then dice or crumble, reserving two slices for garnish. Crumble reserved slices and set aside. Note if you are using reduced salt, add a couple extra slices to the pan for extra flavour.
3. Drain off most of the bacon grease from the pan, reserving a little. Fry potatos and onions in bacon grease until onions have softened and started to become translucent. Poor into a crockpot. Add remaining ingredients to the crockpot except for the reserved two slices of bacon.
4. Cook on low for about 6 hours. If you are placing the crock pot on to cook while at work, do preparation work the night before and refrigerate. If you doing this recipe on stove top, simmer for about 40 - 45 minutes, stirring every four or five minutes to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom.
5. Serve with a sprinkle of bacon and diced green onions as garnish.