New Hampshire Corn Chowder

New Hampshire is the second state on our Food Tour and was a little more difficult to find a specific food that it's famous for. New Hampshire and Vermont shared a lot of the same foods as did all of New England. We saved maple syrup for Vermont (hint for next week's recipe). I came across a corn chowder recipe at Our Grandmother's Kitchen and decided on that for New Hampshire.

Ingredients:

5 pieces bacon
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb small red potatoes, quartered
5 cups corn (or 3 cans)
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cup milk (or 1/2 and 1/2)
green onions for garnish

Directions:

Brown bacon pieces in large pot, drain on paper towels, pour off most of the bacon fat, leaving a small amount to sautee vegetables in.

Sautee onions in bacon fat, then add peppers and garlic until soft.

Add potatoes, toss to coat.

Add corn, broth and water, bacon pieces and pepper (wait to add salt at the end). Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat, simmer 30 min.

The original recipe said to use bacon pieces as garnish and to use all of the bacon fat in the soup. I opted to strain off almost all of the bacon fat, but add the bacon pieces into the soup, rather than use as garnish. However, if you want crispy bacon, wait to add it at the end instead.

Puree soup in small batches (hot liquid expands in the blender, so be sure to keep the middle piece of the blender lid off to let out steam). The original recipe calls for puree-ing 1/3 of the soup. I did more than half because I wanted a smoother soup. My family was fighting over the big potato pieces, so maybe leaving more chunks would have been better :)

Add pureed soup back to pot, add milk (I used half and half) heat through, but don't boil. Add salt to taste.

*Since I was cooking the bacon in the soup, I wanted to wait to add salt at the end so as not to over salt it. If you are using bacon as a garnish, you could add salt at the same time as pepper (before cooking for 30min).

Garnish with green onion.

This was the perfect week for a warm, comforting soup as it has been absolutely FREEZING here this week.

I would definitely make this again and everyone loved it and went back for more. I think something a little spicy (like some jalapeno) would be a nice addition (but not very New Hampshire-esque).

For dessert in New Hampshire, we had Bread and Butter Pudding(very much worth checking out!).

Food Tour USA

Next Stop: Vermont







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