Summer has faded away, leaving us with that crisp, brisk feeling of Fall in the air. I love Fall. It means perfect temperature, sunny days with a slight chill, Halloween, pumpkins, that smell of golden leaves, and hearty, warm, soul soothing dishes.
It's also a time where cash runs a little low with two children in school. All the back to school supplies, lunch money, field trip money, Book Orders, Art Classes and Supplies, Cheerleading Fees, and so forth seem to hit us all at once and we never seem to be ready for it after a Summer of no fees and payments. So, we have to scrimp and save and manage the first couple of weeks until we adjust. And in the meantime, like Old Mother Hubbard, my cupboards start to become bare. And this is when I have to start to become creative with our meals. After all, there is only so many times I can serve up cans of Chef Boyardee and call it a meal.
I rummaged around and found a can of whole kernel corn, a can of creamed corn, a can of chicken broth, three potatoes, a bag of onions, and a half of container of heavy cream. I Googled around and pretty much discovered I could concoct a Corn Chowder like meal out of those ingredients. I also discovered I had never had Corn Chowder and it sounded pretty good to me. I'm some one who absolutely LOVES Tony Roma's Baked Potato Soup, and I love corn so this idea was very appealing to me.
Most of the recipes I read included Bacon. But since Ham Steaks were on sale and we are pinching pennies this week, I decided to use Ham Steaks instead. I do not regret this decision. It made the soup (chowder?) much more hearty. I think the thinness of the bacon would have made it feel more like a starter dish than the star dish.
Here's how it went. You need the following:
Ham Steaks (I had two small ones)
A can of Whole Corn Kernels, drained
A can of Creamed Corn
1 onion, diced
3 potatoes, diced
1 can of Chicken Broth
Butter
About a cup of Heavy Cream
Salt and Pepper
I cut the Ham Steaks into bite sized cubes and throw them in my pre-heated pot.
While they cooked, I diced the onion and the potatoes before adding them to the pot with a big spoonful of butter.
I mixed it all up and let the butter melt and coat the potatoes so they don't stick to the pan. After it cooked for a few minutes and the butter was melted and incorporated throughout, I added the Chicken Broth. Bring that to a simmer and let it reduce a bit and also soften the potatoes.
Then add both cans of corn. The Cream I heated in the microwave for about 30 seconds to take the chill off and bring it to room temperature. I do this with most dairy products when I'm going to add it to a hot pan. I find that this prevents it from curdling. And that's no good when it curdles. It looks gross and you got to toss it and then you get in a bad mood because you wasted your time and food. So, I always recommending bringing cream, milk, sour cream, etc. to room temperature before adding them to a hot pan.
After adding the cream, I stirred and mixed it all together. I added lots of black pepper. A little kosher salt. Not too much salt because the Ham Steak is already salty. I let it simmer until the potatoes were the perfect texture. Slightly firm, but not mushy.
That's it. Then I served it. My daughter ate two big bowls of this. My husband ate four. I had two myself and plan on having some leftovers today for lunch. It's really good. It's sweet from the corn, but smokey from the ham. The two flavors come together so nicely.
I can see bacon being awesome in this. I can also see using a nice sausage that has kick to it, like an andouille or chorizo. Mmmmm....sweet and spicy playing nice together...that would work very well.
And it's so comforting. A perfect Sunday meal for the beginning of Fall.
