Recipe: Corn Chowder with Wild Rice

By Ellen Green

Late summer in my family has meant corn chowder and BLTs for as long as I can remember–some years, it’s on the menu almost once a week from the end of August until the corn stops. I’m not bored of it yet! The best thing about this soup is that it works just fine with corn that’s a little too tough or old to just slather with butter and gnaw on. And, until the tomatoes are done, it is always served with a BLT. They are made for eachother, and, in fact, they tend to fade away into pumpkins and late greens at the same time.

But! You need corn on the cob for this soup–it isn’t any good with frozen corn, and you use the cobs to make the soup. (And hey, save the husks for tamales if you don’t have plans for the weekend.) So grab a few ears and get started!

A couple other notes:

• Wild rice is what makes this dish special, and there aren’t great substitutes for it. If you don’t have it, don’t use another kind of rice–it’ll get mushy. Use cooked quinoa (red works better than white) or parboiled waxy potatoes.
• To make it vegetarian, use your favorite bacon substitute, a dash of liquid smoke, or just omit the bacon entirely. It’ll still be good.
• To make it fancy (and extremely delicious), stir in some cooked crab or lobster meat just before serving.
• Throw in other vegetables if you have them–I like blanched green beans or spinach, or even just an extra carrot.
• It’s great left over! Just stir it thoroughly before portioning it cold for reheating so that the cream isn’t all floating at the top. It reheats best on the stovetop–bring it to a full boil over high heat and keep it there for about a minute so that it emulsifies a bit.

Corn Chowder with Wild Rice

Serves: 4-6 big bowls or 8-12 mugs of soup
Time: about 45 minutes active, about 1 ½ hours total
Equipment: 2 stove burners, 1 saucepan, 1 soup pot, a chef’s knife and a cutting board, stirring spoon, clean dish towel or a roll of food wrap (recommended)

Ingredients:

• 4 large ears of corn
• ¼ lb bacon, preferably thick cut
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• a bay leaf or two
• a sprig or two of fresh thyme (or ½ tsp dried)
• ¾ cup raw wild rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 large stalk of celery, diced (about ½ cup total)
• 1 large carrot, diced (1-1 ½ cups total)
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 cups cream

Directions

1. Shuck the corn and snap off the stalks. Cut the kernels off the cobs–I like to put my cutting board on a big, clean towel to catch all the flying kernels. Set the kernels aside in the fridge for now, and hold onto the cobs!
2. Cut the bacon into matchsticks and put them in your soup pot. Turn the heat to medium-low and, once they’re starting to sizzle, pour in about half a cup of water and cover the pot loosely. (This lets more of the fat render before the bacon starts to burn.) Cook until the bacon is brown and very crisp. As the water cooks off, the bacon will spit quite a bit, so be careful! Once the bacon is done, scoop it out, leaving the fat, and set the bacon aside.
   (If, like me, you’re making BLTs at the same time, just grab 2 tablespoons of fat from the bacon pan, and save a few slices of bacon to crumble over the soup when it’s done.)
3. Tip the diced onion into the hot bacon fat. Add a little more butter or oil if necessary to coat the onion. Saute gently until the onions are limp and translucent.
4. Add the broth, bay leaves, thyme (stems and all), and corn cobs (snap them in half to fit if you need to) to the pot. Cover it, bring it to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes to infuse the broth with corn flavor.
5. While the broth simmers, bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a separate pot. Once it reaches a vigorous boil, add 1 tsp salt and the wild rice. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the rice is done. It should still be pretty chewy, but you’ll see the grains pop and curl up. Once most of the grains are popped, it’s done–it takes 30-45 minutes. Drain and set aside.
6. Add the carrot and celery to the broth, and fish out the corn cobs, bay leaves, and thyme stems. Simmer until the carrots are cooked.
7. While the carrots cook, scrape the corn cobs: when they’re cool enough to handle, scrape the remaining bits of the kernels onto a cutting board with the back of a butter knife. You’ll end up with a few tablespoons of corn paste–scrape it into the soup. Now you can get rid of the cobs.
8. To finish the soup, stir in the cream, corn, and rice. Bring the soup to a simmer, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Pass the bacon bits at the table to sprinkle on top, or stir them in.