Carla Makes Corn Chowder

Clapper!

That's the corn clappers, ta-da!

[upbeat music]

There are a lot of reasons to make this recipe.

This is an excellent corn chowda!

We have to start with corn.

Corn these days is incredibly sweet!

It has been bred to be super sweet,

there used to be all kinds of varieties of corn

being grown all over the ding dang place and they had

like more nuanced corny flavor with other flavors in it.

That's one of the things that

we have to adjust for in the corn chowder,

is to balance out some of that sweetness.

There's a lot of different ways on the internet

that people are gonna tell you to take the kernels off

the corn and I've tried them all.

One of the ways that I like is cut off a little strip,

then that gives you like a flat right?

I just made a little base.

And then you're just zipping the corn kernels off

and then roll it onto that side you just made

and zip them down again

and you just want to make sure that you're going

deep enough to get to the base of the kernel

right where it meets the cob.

I'm gonna use the kernels,

I'm gonna saute them and that's gonna be like part of

the flavor base of the soup

but the cobs is really what I'm after.

We're going to make a corn broth,

here's our eight ears of corn, kernels removed.

This is a couple of parmesan rinds,

why am I putting parmesan rinds in a corn broth?

They're salty, they're um ami,

they're also gonna give the broth body.

Shiitakes, we're gonna have mushrooms in the saute

that's part of the vegetable mix.

The stems have a lot of flavor.

Bay leaf which Adam Rapopart doesn't believe in.

If you made this without the bay leaf,

you would never know.

But I do and so does the rest of the Bon Appetite

test kitchen, fresh thyme, and then salt.

Most stocks are not going to tell you to add salt

because if you make a stock or a broth that then gets

reduced and its already been salted, all of that salt

magnifies and gets too salty

but because the way that we're gonna use this,

we're gonna use the stock without really boiling it down,

that salt is just gonna make

this more rich and more flavorful.

More flavoraful.

Alright, let's go to the stove.

'Cause we also need water.

And this is eight cups.

It should be enough to just cover everybody.

And you can already see that the water looks

a little bit milky right away,

that's the cob itself has this like delicious,

all the juices from the corn.

I'm gonna bring it up to a boil and then once it's at

a boil I'm lowering the temperature, medium low,

I want this at a gentle simmer,

that's going to take about 45 minutes.

At this point you're gonna be like I could've made a whole

chowder in 45 minutes, you could, but it won't have

all of these layers of flavor and you're gonna build so much

flavor into the cooking liquid itself that when it combines

with the other ingredients, they don't have to cook

together for very long, because everybody is bringing

a lot of developed flavor already to the party.

Flavor and time are kind of you know, connected!

So, all of this is to make the corn more delicious

and to show it off.

I am chopping mushrooms for the chowder which is gonna

be part of the vegetable medley mix that goes in before

we add the cream.

Now we go back over here and we saute some stuff.

The first thing I'm gonna do is salt the corn.

Add pepper, my stock is simmering if anyone was curious.

Okay so this has to saute until the corn is bright yellow

and starting to be tender and then I'll deglaze it

with the white wine, what we're balancing throughout

this whole recipe is the overwhelming sweetness

and starchiness of corn.

So I've been at Bon Appetite guys like comin' up

on eight years, so I've had a hand in pretty much every

recipe we've published since then

and so when I was looking at this recipe,

I can remember the conversations with Rick

and I can remember him telling me why everything

was important and then I remember him being like

okay, well I made it this way, I made it that way

and we would taste both versions and it was true.

Like the version where you'd do a little bit more

is more delicious.

Okay so it's been 12 to 15 minutes

and what's goin' on in the pan now is that some of the

corn juices that came out of the corn

and the butter itself are kind of browning

on the bottom of the pot.

I'm gonna take out half a cup of this mixture

and we're going to use that for garnishing later

and now I'm going to deglaze with that

quarter cup of white wine.

And you'll hear it bubble up right away.

I just want to cook it enough until the wine evaporates

and the juices left in the pan are thickened

and a little bit syrupy.

Alright so I've got my corn for my topper whopper

and I've got my corn for the chowder.

So now we're gonna build the chowder with the other

ingredients I have a little more butter.

And then we have bacon.

If you wanna keep this vegetarian

obviously don't put the bacon in.

You might need another tablespoon of butter though,

to make up for the fat that the bacon is rendering.

I feel like we are approaching golden brown of fat

as rendered, look at that fat I mean come on.

Shallots are going in.

We have some grated garlic.

I got some beautiful leeks.

Potatoes that have been beautifully diced.

And then I've got my shiitakes.

So the goal right now is to get everybody softened.

I'm not looking for a lot of color on the vegetables.

I just want to get them to where they're starting to sweat.

Kind of like me on the subway in the morning,

just a pale sheen of sweat starting to warm up.

But I haven't like gone toasty yet.

I'm straining the stock, PS.

Talk about a light sheen.

Oh yeah!

I'm getting the parmy flavor

and I'm getting the herby flavor.

I taste the bay leaf very strongly.

Tell Adam Rapaport that.

This is very balanced, this is Rick, cheers.

So I have a couple of fresh, red chilies.

If you don't like heat,

don't use the chilies we are

specifically say to remove the seeds so that decreases

things quite a bit in the heat department.

I don't know, I actually want a little heat.

Going to leave some of the seeds in.

Also a lot of the heat is in the ribs,

it's not just in the seeds itself but the ribs.

Oh, she's hot.

Okay, nevermind, I'm gonna take the seeds out.

[coughs] Yeah, my ladys hot.

Oh yeah it's hot [laughs]

Mmmm, that was spicy, I feel great now,

I have a light sheen [laughs].

I'm gonna take my very hot chilies that I chopped,

a little bit of flour,

and our delicious corn stock.

We are gonna move onto our final stages.

So the veggies that I wanted softened

but not taking on color.

I think we are there but everything else looks really good.

So now I'm gonna add those chilies,

they don't take very long.

I just want them to kind of soften

and start to bloom.

This is all purpose flour,

the reason the flour is going in

is because it's gonna add body to the broth

and then I'm gonna add my delicious corn broth

and when this goes in it's gonna loosen up anything

that was stuck to the bottom of the pan

and a wooden spoon is really good for scraping the bottom

of the pot because all of that is very delicious,

concentrated little flavor bombs.

That's what I like about cooking,

how to feedback, gettin' a lot of feedback off the end

of the end of this wooden spoon.

Oh

we're very close, but I do want everybody to mingle now,

the vegetable flavors are gonna go into the broth,

and vicey verse, and we need to cook off some of that flour

so this is gonna look a little bit thicker

in a couple of minutes.

The key with herbs is not cutting them too many times.

The thing you don't want to do when you're chopping herbs

is chop them and then turn them and chop them again

and then chop them some more

and then turn them the other way

and then rock your knife back over them again

and then pile them back up again

and chop them again.

That's when you bruise them,

they turn black, they get all sludgey,

they lose their integrity,

don't think about it as chopping herbs,

think about it as slicing the herbs.

Oyster crackers, these are for serving.

Marjoram, actually gonna go into the soup.

The cream of the chowder, this is it, finish line.

Heavy cream, two cup, marjoram, the corns gonna go back in,

everybodys going to party, let's do it.

[upbeat music] Ready?

[upbeat music]

Fricken Molly Baz over there.

Stay tuned for whatever that store it's gonna end up in,

secrets!

So instead of adding a lot of cream,

like twice as much cream earlier and reducing it

or cooking it all through here where it's like

coming down, it's that amount of cream

but it's also got the delicious broth.

And it's going to cook for a very short amount of time

from this point forward.

That's that beautiful sauted corn mixture

that I made earlier, some of my vegetables got a little

brown on the bottom of the pot.

Hey, guys!

This is why we say in the recipe it's like

don't let it take on color, that is why I talked about it,

it was like oh it will make it a little bit brown

in the end, I did that then I made it a little bit brown

and it was a little bit stuck on, you don't throw it out,

you don't stop going, you keep going.

[Man] Ma, the chowda is gonna be brown!

Ma, ma, why'd you make the brown chowda!

Still pretty.

Everybody calm down.

The marjoram smells delicious.

Marjoram is like a more floral.

I love it I love it too!

I think it's--

I'm bringin' it back!

Marjoram is like what a more fragrant,

a little bit more aromatic,

oregano?

And it's softer!

Yeah

Yes, totally of oregano.

Verified by the

by the, what are you?

The herb slayer [laughs]!

Alright, I added salt because it needed it.

Mmmm, I'm really happy with the body

and the texture of the soup.

I'm very happy with the flavor.

I think there's the right amount of liquid,

I'm turning it off.

I'm adding controversial marjoram.

Oh now look what's happening to this color story.

Gorg!

Okay [laughs] this is like mom music's chowder factory.

Gonna spoon it up.

What I like about this soup right now,

gotta tell ya, the proportion of the brothy bits

to the vegetable and bacony bits is very ideal.

You know when sometimes you're spooning it up

and it's like too thin or too chunky?

It's just right and I really do like little oyster crackers

those are adorbs.

Okey dokey.

Oh look whose here!

Well hello hello!

Why is a deep, dark color?

I'm so glad you asked.

Wait, can I guess?

The first person that comes to taste it is like

why is, Ma!

[Man] Ma, why is the chowda brown?

Ma, why is the chowda brown?

Well it kind of looks like almost like lobster bisque.

Like it's going into bisque world which is not far off

from a chowder.

To me, it's also like late summer when there's starting

to be some dusty dust in the air,

and like the wheat plants are like--

And the dust is in the soup?

No it's just like--

Delicious Really delicious.

I can't believe there's mushrooms in here.

I think that's--

I like that.

Unique! Yeah.

You make a corn, there's a corn stock that actually

Especially that fresh chili.

Yeah, fresh chili for sure.

Mmm, yum, I like the little heat from the chili.

This reminds me-- I'm into it

breakfast of champions.

Of the chowders of my youth but like

just much tastier and less like gloppy gloopy gummy.

Just like the grown up version of what I used to eat.

Rick, everything you made us do is worth it.

Miss you, Rick.

I got a corn stuck in my throat!

It's a chowder, it's a power chowder.

You know what I mean?

It's not like, it's on purpose.

It's purposely chowdery.

Don't hate it.

Don't hate it at all.

It's a good chowder, you should make it.

Mm-hmm!

Cookin' bacon is an easy way to get the people

that you love to show up in your kitchen.

[Man] What are you cookin'!

[laughs] Bro, I smell bacon!