Vermont Corn Chowder Recipes

NEW ENGLAND CORN CHOWDER

Steps:

• Add onion and garlic to a dutch oven and cook in butter on medium-high until softened. Add in flour and stir to coat.
• Stir in heavy cream and vegetable stock, making sure to break up any clumps of flour.
• Add in potatoes and corn and let simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.
• Season with salt and pepper. If chowder is too thin, thicken with a slurry of cornstarch and water. Serve and enjoy!

VERMONT CORN CHOWDER

Steps:

• Cook the diced salt pork over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, so that all of the pork pieces become brown but not too dry.
• Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon.
• Saute the onion in the pork fat just until tender, but not brown.
• Add the water, corn, potatoes and salt, cooking, uncovered, until the potatoes are almost soft.
• Add the milk and simmer very gently for 10 to 15 minutes to let the flavor ripen.
• Taste for seasoning, adding a good bit of freshly ground pepper.
• Sprinkle the surface with the salt pork and serve with a large supply of soda crackers.

CORN CHOWDER

Steps:

• Husk the corn.
• Carefully remove most of the silk by hand and then rub the ears with a towel to finish the job.
• Cut the kernels from the cobs and place in a bowl.
• You should have about 2 cups.
• Using the back of your knife, scrape down the cobs and add the milky substance that oozes out to the corn kernels.
• Heat a 3-to 4-quart heavy pot over low heat and add the diced bacon.
• Once it has rendered a few tablespoons of fat, increase the heat to medium and cook until the bacon is crisp and golden brown.
• Pour off all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat, leaving the bacon in the pot.
• Add the butter, onion, bell pepper, thyme, cumin, and turmeric and sauté, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes, until the onion and pepper are tender but not browned.
• Add the corn kernels, potatoes and stock, turn up the heat, cover, and boil vigorously for about 10 minutes.
• Some of the potatoes will have broken up, but most should retain their shape.
• Use the back of your spoon to smash a bit of the corn and potatoes against the side of the pot.
• Reduce the heat to medium and season the chowder with salt and pepper.
• Stir the cornstarch mixture and slowly pour it into the pot, stirring constantly.
• As soon as the chowder has come back to a boil and thickened slightly, remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
• Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
• If you are not serving the chowder within the hour, let it cool a bit, then refrigerate; cover the chowder AFTER it has chilled completely.
• Otherwise, let it sit at room temperature for up to an hour, allowing the flavors to meld.
• When ready to serve, reheat the chowder over low heat; don't let it boil.
• Ladle into cups or bowls and sprinkle with the chopped chives.

CORN AND LOBSTER CHOWDER WITH VERMONT CHEDDAR CHEESE TWISTS

Steps:

• 1. For the Chowder: Pick through lobster meat discarding any shells or odd pieces. Tear into bite size pieces, place in bowl and set aside
• 2. Puree 4 cups of corn with 1- 1/4 cups of the chicken broth in food processor until almost smooth.
• 3. Saute bacon until crisp, transfere to paper towels and crumble when cooled.
• 4. Pour off and discard drippings in pan SAVING 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat. Saute onions in drippings for 5 min until golden. Add in the 4 cups of corn sauteing for 3 minutes, then add in the carrots, celery and cayenne and continue to cook until veggies are crisp tender about 5 more minutes.
• 5. Add clam juice and the remainder of the chicken broth to the veggie mix and simmer for 10 minutes
• 6. Stir in corn puree and whipping cream...simmer for 5 minutes...season with salt and pepper.
• 7. Remove soup from heat and stir in sour cream.
• 8. Melt the 2 tbs butter in a saucepan, toss in lobster meat and saute until the meat is just heated through.
• 9. Ladle soup into bowls, garnish each bowl with lobster chunks, crumbled bacon pieces and fresh chopped chives
• 10. Serve chowder with Vermont Cheddar Cheese Twists...recipe to follow To reheat leftovers...bring soup to room temperature and simmer very gently until heated through.
• 11. For the Cheddar Twists: Mix all ingredients in a small bowl except the puff pastry
• 12. Roll puff pastry to a 18x10 rectangle ( dough will be real thin) Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese evenly over half the pastry, fold plain dough half over the cheese half..roll out dough again to 18x10 size, sprinkle half the dough with another 3rd of the cheese and roll out one more time repeating the folding technique and sprinkling with the remainder of cheese ....roll out for the last time to 18x10 or as close as you can reasonalbly get
• 13. Transfer to unlined baking sheet and chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
• 14. Pre Heat oven to 425 degree. Position oven racks in upper third and lower third positions of oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• 15. Cut pastry crosswise in half, forming two 10x9 rectangles.Trim and discard uneven edges of pastry.
• 16. Cut each rectangle crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips. Twist each strip a few times and lay the twist on the parchement spacing them a little less than an inch apart...bake for a total of 10 minutes, rotating baking pans halfway through baking. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers tightly wrapped in foil at room temperature.