well shoot: RIP, Steve Jobs: Roasted Corn Chowder anyway

October 05, 2011

well shoot: RIP, Steve Jobs: Roasted Corn Chowder anyway

All settled in for the evening. Baking Texas Sheet Cake to feed to my fellow Habitat for Humanity volunteers at the build tomorrow. Organizing my closet so I can grab my lululemon and go. Then I'm talking to Kelly and hearing about her excellent day when the news comes through that Apple founder and the original "genius", Steve Jobs has passed. So young at 56. Sad. The first "portable" computer I ever crunched an Excel spread sheet on was a big bulky Macintosh when I was still a career girl at CIGNA (circa 1988). Our first home computer was a Dell and good God that thing drove me crazy. When that beast croaked we saw the light and bought the very iMac I'm posting on still today in 2005. Back in the day you could walk into the apple store at Keystone and there might be one or two other people in the store with the geniuses. I would go in for one-to-one training often twice a week working on a 45-minute DVD for Kelly's high school swimming and diving team. Good times. I'm pretty sure I haven't been in that same store with less than 50 people for a couple of years now. Hasn't stopped us from buying a second iMac, Macbooks for both college girls, iPads and countless variations of iPods. Sara has the iPhone and I'm finally eligible in February. Oh to have my iCal on my phone. Will that help me get places on time? If you know me, you know that answer. Anyway, thanks Steve Jobs for all the wonderful and beautiful mac machines that make my life easier. It staggers my mind when Kelly's on another continent talking to me and showing me the scenery from her iPad to my computer. A lovely, lovely thing. And what can you say about your iPod? How many hours together on the treadmill, in the grocery on the plane? The instant lift of my favorite music (yes, most often it's Coldplay) whenever I need it. We'll miss you and your brilliant mind, Steve Jobs but we'll think of you often and fondly.

The Texas Sheet Cake from my blog recipe I read off my iPad in my cookbook holder (see, never far removed from his touch) is out of the oven!

Still need to post while I have some time, so here we go. Clipped a recipe for roasted corn chowder out of the Sunday paper a while back. Loved it. Having an immersion blender is super helpful, but you can use a regular blender. My KitchenAid bit the dust at the beginning of summer and I've yet to replace it and truly the only time I really need it is if I want to blend ice into a smoothie or other beverage. I make smoothies before work on a pretty regular basis, but I just use the beaker that came with my immersion blender and pour it over crushed ice. When there is a will there is a way.

Roasted Corn Chowder

It's not sweet corn season anymore, so save that part of this recipe for next summer and go to Trader Joe's and buy a great bag of frozen roasted corn and use that instead of fresh, way easier and not seasonally dependent. And if you want to skip grilling altogether: cook the onions and peppers in the pot with the bacon until softened. Fresh corn will work best for the puree, but thaw 2 cups of frozen kernels and give them a spin in the blender. Then when adding the broth add the potatoes and frozen corn to the soup. Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. You'll note in my photos that I didn't use cilantro. Simply an omission.

Roasted Corn Chowder
8 ears sweet corn, husked (or 16-oz bag frozen roasted sweet corn)
1 large onion, peeled and sliced in thick rings
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 4-6 pieces
1 pound new potatoes, halved
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme or 1 T fresh thyme leaves
4 C chicken broth
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped

Set aside four ears of corn. Brush four ears of corn, onion slices, pepper pieces and halved potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. With remaining corn stand ears on flat end and using a sharp chef's knife, cut off kernels into a bowl. Puree cut kernels in a blender or stick blender (should be about 2 C).

Heat grill to medium and grill whole corn, onion slices, pepper pieces and halved potatoes (cut-side down) until spotty brown or about 5 minutes for the potatoes (do not turn) and 10 minutes for the corn, onion and pepper (turned once). Remove vegetables from grill to a baking sheet to cool a bit. When able to handle, coarsely chop the potatoes, onions and pepper and cut the kernels from the corn.

Meanwhile cook bacon in a soup pot over medium-high heat until crisp, about 5-7 minutes. Pour off all bacon grease into a safe container. Add the thyme and corn puree to the bacon in the soup pot and stir until the mixture begins to bubble. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add vegetables and reduce heat to medium low to simmer until flavors blend, about 10 minutes. Add water if necessary to thin soup to desired thickness. Stir in cilantro.