Corn Chowder

Yes, that is a plastic spoon, I wash it and reuse every day.

Last week I got a dozen ears of corn, and I ate almost all of them boiled, with butter and salt, which is the best way.  Yum.  But, after eating an ear or two or three a day for awhile... you look to branch out, right?  I was actually thinking of cutting some off the cob and freezing it, and then I thought to myself (I must not have been feeling very smart that day) "I wonder if there is a good mainly-corn soup recipe out there.  I bet that would be good - mostly corn, maybe a little cheese..." and then I opened a cook book and slapped myself, because obviously I should be making corn chowder.

The cookbook author's recommendation was to use half and half, since this recipe is only made at the height of the corn season once a year, so live it up!  But then I was thinking, "if I approached every seasonal vegetable that way I would always be cooking decadently."  Luckily for my cholesterol I don't keep either milk or half and half on hand, so I walked down to the bodega and they didn't have half and half, so I used whole milk. They had a quart size - which was exactly how much the recipe called for.  Of course, I forgot to put half of it in, which means now I have to figure out what to do with all this whole milk.  (Probably make more corn chowder.  Or maybe mac and cheese with cabbage.  Or maybe just cheesy cabbage.)

In any case, here is the recipe, as it went for me:

Six ears of corn, kernels removed and cobs preserved
2 c water
1/4 c butter
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 quart milk  (But I used about 1/2 of that)
1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese (I probably used more than that)


Boil the cobs in the water for as long as you can with salt and pepper.
Heat the butter in a pan, add the onion and cook until tender.  Add the flour and cook until it no longer smells like flour.  Add the milk gradually and keep whisking, until it is more soup like than gravy like.  (In retrospect, I'd add the cheese while it's still gravy-like, and then keep adding milk until it's soup like.)
Remove cobs from water, leaving delicious corn broth.  Throw everything else in the pot.  Cook about 10 minutes, until corn is tender.  Yum.