Project Cookbook: Summer Corn & Clam Chowder with Rosemary Biscuits

Similar to my duck recipe, I made this many moons ago (well in February, when heart-shaped biscuits were a perfect Valentine’s Day treat) and am finally just getting around to posting it now! I’ve been a slacker with my 2012 cookbook project, but plan to start stepping it up!

This chowder comes from the Clinton St. Baking Company cookbook. Until now, I haven’t been able to turn the page from my favorite pancake recipe but my friend Jenny, who introduced me to the book, assured me every other recipe is fabulous and I should start with the Corn & Clam Chowder.

She was right, it was delicious and a big hit with Curtis and then again the second night when I brought the leftovers home to have with my mom. It has a nice kick, so if you’re not a fan of spice, I’d recommend using less cayenne.

This is a summer recipe, that I made in the middle of winter. But now that I have it under my belt and know how good and easy it is, when fresh corn season rolls around, I’ll be ready to make summer chowder!

I made heart-shaped rosemary biscuits to go with the chowder, a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs: From The Little Yellow Kitchen and served them with honey butter like they suggested. Honey butter is heaven. And it’s even better paired with savory, salty biscuits!

This isn't a very beautiful photo, but I can assure you the chowder is delicious!

CORN & CLAM CHOWDER

Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook

Serves 8 to 10

2 cups fresh shucked corn (from about 4 ears) – I used frozen

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ cup chopped raw sliced bacon

3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1 whole medium sweet onion, minced

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 small Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks

2 tablespoons salt and ground white pepper, blended

4 cups clam juice

2 cups chopped clams (frozen or fresh) – I used canned

1. First, puree the corn: Put 1 cup of the raw corn and ½ cup of the heavy cream in the bowl of a food processor or blender and pulse or blend until pureed. Set aside.
2. In a medium to large stockpot with a lid, add the olive oil and bacon. Cook on medium to high heat until the bacon is lightly browned and the fat is drawn out. Add the garlic, onion, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, and thyme, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onion is translucent and soft.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the bacon-and-onion mixture. Stir in the butter and mix until the flour and onions are fully incorporated and make a smooth paste (this roux will slightly thicken the base of the soup). Add the potatoes and the remaining cup of corn and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and clam juice, plus 2 cups water. Add the chopped clams and bring the soup to a boil.
4. When the soup is slightly thickened, add the pureed corn mixture and the remaining heavy cream. Do not bring the soup back to a boil. Continue simmering until the potatoes are just cooked. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Remove the bay leaves.

MINI ROSEMARY (HEART-SHAPED) BISCUITS WITH HONEY BUTTER

From the Little Yellow Kitchen

Makes 12 small biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Work the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles forms large crumbs. Stir in the rosemary. Slowly add 1/2 cup of the buttermilk using your hands to mix it in and a ball of dough forms. Do not over work the biscuits or they will be tough!

On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a circle about 7 inches in diameter and 1/2-inch thick. Using a cut out 12 small biscuits using a small cookie cutter.

Bake until they are lightly golden on top, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.

HONEY BUTTER

Ingredients

4 tablespoons softened butter

2 tablespoons honey

Directions

Using a fork, mash the butter as you stir in the honey. (Forget the fork, I whipped it in my kitchen aid mixer which made it nice and fluffy!)

Recipe #4 from Project Cookbook: My 2012 New Year’s Resolution to cook at least one recipe from every cookbook I own.

Amber’s Chicken Tortilla Soup

Since I put my heavenly fleece sheets on, it has warmed back up… but it is raining, so that’s all the excuse I need to make soup. My friend Amber sent me this recipe a few days ago, her version of Chicken Tortilla Soup. I’m leaving for Montana today to visit my friend Megan on her ranch, so I made a huge batch last night so Curtis will have plenty to eat while I’m gone. I’ve included Amber’s original recipe below with my changes noted. We also tried Trader Joe's tamales and they're great! The soup is delicious!

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast (I used 2)
½ onion, diced (1 onion, diced)
2 cans diced tomatoes (1 - 28 oz. can)
1 small can diced green chilies
4 cups chicken stock (I put in a box and ½ of stock)
Dashes of Tabasco, to taste (I love spicy, hot, so I put in a big squirt of Sriracha sauce)

For later…
1 can corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado
Cheddar or Jack cheese, shredded
Crumbled tortilla chips

In a Crockpot, put in the chicken breast (whole), diced onion, canned tomatoes, green chilies, chicken stock and hot sauce. Let cook for about 4 hours on low, and then pull the chicken breast out and shred. Add shredded chicken back in soup and then add the corn and beans. Let the soup cook another 30 minutes to an hour.

To serve: Put a generous helping of shredded cheese and a handful of crumbled (but not too crumbled) tortilla chips on the bottom of each bowl. Fill each bowl with soup, add a little more cheese and chips to the top and finish off with fresh, cubed avocado.

In Amber’s words, “Seriously, Yum.”

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Irish Soda Bread Scones

I’m playing a bit of catch up, I wrote this and meant to post it the weekend before St. Paddy’s Day. Vacation photos coming soon…

Sunday, March 14: The other day I was browsing all my favorite food blogs and came across two recipes that I thought would make a perfect Sunday dinner. This soup is from Two Peas and Their Pod – the cooking couple, a great blog full of healthy recipes. I made the soup even healthier by adding kale and then counter balanced it with some Italian sausage (because that’s how I roll). And I found the Irish Soda Bread Scones at Wicked Good Dinner, another great food blog. In my mind, Irish Soda Bread is one of the best parts of St. Paddy’s Day, so I couldn’t pass these up. I kept it simple by leaving out the caraway seeds and used craisins since that’s what I had in my panty. The combination of the spicy soup and slightly sweet scones made one delicious dinner!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (you can use jarred)
Kale – a few leaves rinsed and chopped
2 cans low sodium vegetable broth (15 oz. size)
2 cups water
3 cans low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained (I realized at the last minute I didn’t have black beans, so I used kidney beans, which were great, but next time I will use black beans)
3 cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 T chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
Dash of red pepper flakes
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and cook until tender. Add in the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Italian sausage and cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the sweet potato and roasted red pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add in the broth, water, black beans, kale and tomatoes. Stir well.
4. Add the chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Stir and toss in the cilantro. Stir again. Let the soup simmer on medium low for 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Irish Soda Bread Scones
adapted from Wicked Good Dinner

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup organic raisins (I used craisins)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons cold butter
1 tablespoon toasted caraway seeds (I skipped this)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt (I used ½ tsp.)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, soak the raisins in the vanilla and buttermilk for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk the together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drain the raisins, saving the vanilla buttermilk. Stir in the caraway and raisins. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix with a spoon until just incorporated.

Place the dough on sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly floured and form dough into an 8” round loaf. Gently flatten the loaf with your hands until it’s about 3” high. Cut into 8 wedges and slightly separate each wedge on the baking sheet to allow room for expansion when baking.
Bake for 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet.

Chicken Chile Corn Chowder (with Bacon)

I ran across this recipe on Thursday on one of my favorite food blogs, La Bella Cook, and thought it would be the perfect dinner to accompany Thursday night TV. Curtis made me a Meyer lemon cocktail while I was cooking (because it was Thursday, so why not?) so I lost my desire to follow directions and kind of just put all the ingredients together in a pot … after all it is chowder. If you want the real recipe, please follow it on La Bella Cook. I also used a little bit more of everything because I was counting on leftovers to bring for lunch the next day.

Chicken Chile Corn Chowder
from La Bella Cook adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients:
7 ounces sweet corn, fresh or frozen (I just dumped in ½ a bag of frozen corn)
1 small potato, peeled (I buy my produce at Costco, therefore my potato was NOT small)
3 cups vegetable broth (I used Pacific chicken broth since that’s what I had in my pantry)
1 small onion, chopped (again large, blame it on Costco)
1 stick of celery, sliced (I used 4)
1 medium fresh red chile
1 pat of butter
1 small bunch fresh thyme
3 scallions, sliced thin
1 ounce cheddar cheese, grated (Coastal, of course)
1/3 cup sour cream (a dollop for me, none for Curtis)
Olive oil
Black pepper
Sea salt
Rotisserie chicken, shredded (Costco)
Bacon, cooked ‘til crispy and crumbled

Directions:
Chop the onion and sauté it in olive oil until soft and a bit caramelized. While the onion is cooking, grate the potato in a food processor (or with a cheese grater) and slice the celery. Add the shredded potatoes, celery and butter to the onions and cook until the potatoes crisp up a bit like hash browns.

Dice the chile into small bits (I threw it all in because I like everything spicy hot but discard the seeds if you’re not a fan of heat) and add it to the potato mixture. Add the broth (I used the entire box – 32 oz.), thyme, corn, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes. For more of a chowder/thicker consistency, use an immersion blender and blend it up a bit (I don’t have one, so I just put a few cups in a regular ‘ol blender and then added it back in).

Stir in the shredded chicken and heat for a few more minutes. Dish your chowder into bowls and top with sour cream, grated cheese, bacon bits and scallions.

I thought this would need more seasoning, but it was surprisingly very flavorful. In fact it was easy and delicious and I’ll definitely be making it again!