Easy Corn Chowder

I guess I've had my fair share of corny recipes this summer. (No pun intended, or maybe I did) I love a good bowl of chowder. Clam, corn, chicken. I'll take it. I was doing a little search on how to make chowders and a lot of them contained quite a lot of ingredients. I just wanted a basic simple easy way to make it without having to buy any pre-made canned stuff or other ingredients I really didn't have the budget for at the time. Basically, all I had was corn and onion. Very limited. So I came to to conclusion to just wing it. I mixed and matched to see what I thought fit best.

I started out by cooking the onion in a little bit of butter then making a simple roux of it. The soup pretty much came together from there. Add the milk and chicken stock, along with some dry herbs. you can use vegetable stock, if you'd like to make this vegetarian. You can also add seafoods, meats, veggies. It's all optional.

The end result is a nice and not overly thick soup with some corny goodness.  I wish I had some sourdough bread bowls though. Oh well. Next time. I'm content with my homemade pan de sal.

Serves 2-3

Easy Corn Chowder

1 12 oz can chicken stock or 2 cups water with 1-2 chicken boullion cube (or vegetable stock)
1 1/2 c corn
1/2 medium onion - finely chopped
2 Tbsp Flour
1 1/2 c milk
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp dry basil
1 Tbsp dry oregano
salt
pepper

optionals:
1 celery stalk - chopped
1-2 potatoes - chopped or cubed
1 large carrot - chopped
1 c cooked seafoods or meats
bread bowls


In a pot, melt the butter and saute the onion until tender on medium to high heat. This will make a roux to help thicken the soup.

Then add the flour. Combine until slightly clumpy. Add the milk and stir to combine until milk becomes slightly thick. Then add the chicken stock. Stir occasionally until soup thickens. Once thick, lower the heat and bring the soup to a simmer.

Add in the, corn, basil and oregano. Season with a little salt and pepper to taste.

Best served warm.

For the optionals:
Add the celery carrot and potatoes. Let it cook until tender on medium heat.

To add meats or seafoods, cook in the butter first, then them remove from the pot. Continues by making the roux and so on. Add the meats or seafoods back into the pot once the soup has thickened.

Tuna Corn Casserole

No that isn't a dish full of broken tortilla chips. Actually, those are crushed taco shells. But hiding underneath is where you'll find a creamy delicious treasure I like to call a tuna corn casserole. I happened to be taking stock of what I had in the cupboards and shelves of the pantry and happened to see a couple cans of tuna left. What can I do with tuna that I haven't already done yet?

I don't think I made a casserole with them yet. If I did, it was something different. I can't remember. I had some ears of corn I had gotten from the farmer's market so I figured I'd add that into the mix as well. To top it off I'd make a lovely cheese sauce to mix into it. Yum! I oven roasted the corn and scrapped off the kernels. You can used the canned or frozen corn to save you time. Mixed it with the can of tuna and some chopped shallots.

For the cheese sauce, I used a combination of grated parmesan and some swiss. Cheesy deliciousness. Mixed it all together and topped it of with a layer of crushed taco shells.  Baked it in the oven for 20 minutes. The crushed taco shells got extra crispy while baking giving the dish a nice cunchy texture to the lovely creamy and cheesy sauce.  This is one casserole I'd make again and again.


Serves 2-3

Tuna Corn Casserole

1 6oz can tuna in oil
2-3 c corn kernals - fresh, canned or frozen
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 c milk
1/2 grated parmesan
1/2 c swiss
salt
pepper
1 shallot chopped
Crushed tortilla chips


Preheat your oven to 350˚F

In a casserole, combine the corn, shallot, and tuna.

On medium to low heat. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Combine together to make a roux. When the mixture turns into a douy mass.

Add the milk.  Stir occasionally until milk thickens. Then add the cheese and stir until melted.

Pour the cheese mixture, into the casserole and mix to coat everything. Top With half the crushed tortilla ships and baked for 20 min.

Remove from pven and let it sit for 2 min. Top with the rest of the tortilla chips.

Roasted Corn with Basil Oil

Actually, this post it more about the basil oil than the corn itself. I already posted about Oven-Roasted Corn. I had just cut the kernels from the cob to prevent from having to pick them out from my teeth after eating. I was watching Grill it with Bobby Flay and he had made this really simple basil oil. That got me interested as I love basil. A couple weeks ago, Greg from Sippity Sup! had devoted a bunch of posts to the good ol' basil and its variety. So you know how it goes...you get a craving and you need to fulfill that craving.

It only involves 3 ingredients: fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. I blended everything together in the food processor and placed it into a sealed container. I had a good batch of the stuff and let it sit on the fridge for at least 30 minutes to help marinate it together. You can make this in advance or let it sit for 30 minutes. Open up the container and it smells so good. Almost like pesto. It will keep for several days.

I mixed it into the corn kernels. In a way, it was like a corn salad. It was really good with a subtle pesto-ish taste.



Roasted Corn with Basil Oil

Roasted Corn on the Cob recipe

To remove corn kernels from cob carefully stand the cob straight up, holding the tip. Take a knife and cut down removing the kernels. Mix in a couple tablespoons of the basil oil and mix.


Basil Oil:
1/2 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 c fresh basil

In a food processor or blender, combine both ingredients together until the basil is finely chopped.

If you don't have a food processor or blender, simply fine chop the basil and mix it into the oil. Mash it together with a mortar and pestle or press firmly while stirring with a spoon.

Store in a jar or container with a lid. This may be done in advance. Let it sit for at least 1/2-hour to left the flavors marinate together.

Drizzle as little or as much over you favorite dish.

Tuna Corn Cakes with Garlic Yogurt Sauce

This is my entry to BSI (Blogger’s Secret Ingredient). Hosted this week by Sophia from Burp and Slurp. The secret ingredient chosen was corn. It just so happens that I had a can of sweet corn from Trader Joe's in the cupboard, so it seem a perfect time to use it. Plus since summer is upon us and corn is in demand, I needed to do something with it as well. I figured why not add tuna into the mix. It gave me a chance to use up two more cans of tuna from the bulk I bought from Costco. Sweet!

I quickly did a pan-fry to seal the top and bottoms crusts, then baked it for a few minutes to brown the edges and cook the inside. I served this with a garlic yogurt sauce and a freshly diced tomato lightly tossed with some salt and olive oil.



Tuna Corn Cakes

2 5oz can tuna in water
2 can sweet corn
1 c Panko Crumbs
1 shallot diced
2 egg (beaten)

Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Drain all the water from the tuna as well as all the liquid from the corn. Make sure they are both dry. Pat them with a paper towel, if needed. Mix the two together in a medium bowl. Add in the diced shallot and mix in the 2 beaten eggs.

Divide into 6 cakes.

On med-high heat, coat the bottom of a pan with olive oil. When the oil is hot enough, sear the tops and bottoms of the patties until they form a nice crust. (roughly 2-3 min)

Transfer the patties onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for another 5-8 min to crisp the edges.

Remove from oven and serve.


Garlic Yogurt Sauce
1 5oz cup plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves minced
1 Tbsp lemon juice
salt

Combine yogurt, garlic and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste.

Drizzle over the tuna corn cakes and garnish with some seasoned diced tomatoes.